


Chancellor Zilobist

by BoliTheSenate



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Boba is a Menace, Crack, Force Shenanigans, Fox Needs a Break 2k20, Fox gets a child, Fox is so done, Gen, Nobody Dies, Normal Shenanigans, The Zillo Beast would be the Best Chancellor, biggest plot hole so far: how do we feed the zillobeast, change my mind, does the ghost of a long dead king appearing qualify as a hamlet reference?, except Palpatine, i guess orn free taa would be nourishing?, i have literally no clue, no beta we die like men, ok now there is a child
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-11
Updated: 2021-01-30
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:20:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 21
Words: 23,577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24662203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BoliTheSenate/pseuds/BoliTheSenate
Summary: Commander Fox of the Coruscant Guard hates his job, or rather; he hates what Chancellor Palpatine turned his job into. He hates the unreasonable demands, the tons of paperwork and he hates having to forge Palpatines signature on a daily basis.So, when he sees an oportunity to appoint a new Chancellor, he takes it.And in Fox' opinion things have only improved so far, no matter what the other Commanders say.
Comments: 219
Kudos: 523





	1. Have you heard of the Tragedy of Darth Sidious?

**Author's Note:**

> My first fic ever, because i am in a discord server full of horrible enablers. :)  
> Also do not expect a regular update schedule, the next chapter might be out by tomorrow or in a month, idk.
> 
> (the last time i watched TCW was good 8 years ago, so let's just say all inconsistencies are absolutely intentional)

Commander Fox of the Coruscant Guard was done.  
Not with his work, Force forbid, no, but with the little things, like the continuing theft of the pantoran senators’ cutlery, forging the chancellor’s signature on official documents or the general state of the Republic.  
So, when he got an emergency message from Thire that the ginormous, practically invincible beast they held in a local research facility had broken free and was currently running amok in the city, he just couldn’t cope with this osik anymore.  
Who in their right minds had had the glorious idea to hold that thing here, on Coruscant, a kriffing City Planet?! (Fox knew exactly who. The name starts with “P” and ends with “alpatine”.)  
Force, it probably had been himself that had authorized this absolute clusterfuck. Kriffing Palpatine and his force-damned inability to do his kriffing paperwork himself. But no, the Chancellor much rather likes to spend his days talking with that idiot Skywalker than doing his duties as the leader of the Republic.  
Fox had not been designed for this.  
Silently swearing he started to peel himself from the layers of flimsi and datapads that covered himself and the two shinies he had tricked into helping him review hundreds of obscure and positively ancient records and laws of the Republic on the search for possible emergency powers previous chancellors had received. “As a guideline” and “To look for what has helped the Republic once before” Palpatine had said. Yeah, right. That creepy old geezer only was interested in which powers he hadn’t yet been able to claim and if there was a precedent he could use as an argument to get them. Fox would know, he wasn’t blind, even though half the senate seemingly was.  
Luckily, they hadn’t been very successful in finding any (except for if Palpatine wanted to get multiple spouses or a special permit to ride a domesticated nexu in the Dome as a show of battle prowess…)  
Several empty paper cups tumbled to the floor and Fox blinked. Ugh, Kelly was going to kill him… The medic had repeatedly warned him to watch his caffeine intake. And he had tried, really, but apparently replacing kaf with stim shots didn’t make it better… So, Fox started to avoid the medic altogether.  
“Are you gonna get more kaf?”, one of the shinies, Blink, muttered blearily, and then, after several seconds added “Sir.”  
Great, so now it only took 53 hours of reviewing reports before they lost all respect for their superiors… Fox glared at the younger vod, who was all but draped over several reports, his head lying slightly elevated on a stack of flimsiplast.  
With a sigh the commander raked his fingers through his short hair and decidedly did NOT wobble.  
“Get your kaf yourself, there was an emergency, I need to go”  
Task, the other unfortunate shiny in the room, scrunched up his face. “What is it this time? I swear, if that Twi’lek senators’ pet porgs are on the run again, I will personally incinerate them.” Blink made a pained sound, partially muffled against his stack of flimsi. Them he lifted his head and stared warily at Fox. “Or has Palpatine…” The Commander narrowed his eyes, “Sorry, Sir. Has Chancellor Palpatine made another last-minute order of a complete seafood platter for the Mon Calamari delegates?”  
Fox winced, which was partially because of, well, Palpatine, and partially, because that incident truly was a painful memory for all the Senate guard (plus a rather extensive part of assorted senatorial aides).  
Mistaking his wince as an affirmative Blink groaned and let his head fall back on the flimsi. “Sweet Force have mercy with us! Does the chancellor realize we are on a planet that has not got an ocean? Where does he imagine high-quality fresh seafood comes from?!” The Commander opened his mouth to interrupt the shiny but was cut off by another sudden gasp from Blink. Wide eyed (and with pronounced bags under his eyes) his vod jerked back up again and gestured at him “Sir! We could take him! He’s just an old geezer, right?” (And oh boi, after this was over Fox was definitely going to have a word with him about shutting his mouth. How did he ever get past the kaminiise?)  
“BLINK!” Fox snapped.  
But apparently Blink was on an absolute roll, as he didn’t even flinch at the exclamation and started to frantically dig through the flimsi, only to produce something that seemed like a printed scan of a half-burned document.  
“Here! ‘Says that whoever bests the Chancellor in a one-on-one combat can claim the title for themselves! It wasn’t relevant for our search, so I didn’t tell you, but it was funny, and I checked, and it’s never been revoked! Probably ‘cause they thought it’s been burnt to a crisp…”  
With a loud whack a thick flimsi dossier hit the excited clone square in the face.  
“Shuddup vod, we don’t even legally count as sentients. The only thing that we’ll get if one of us corners the chancellor and issues a kriffing challenge for his post is a one-way ticket back to Kamino!”  
“Still…”, Blink tried to defend his (probably) caffeine- and sleep deprivation-induced idea, only to be cut off by Fox, who grabbed the piece of flimsi and stuffed it into the pocket of his kama.  
“Listen, there is currently a giant beast running amok on this planet and even if I wanted to, I’d really have no time to challenge anyone to anything!” With those words Fox grabbed his helmet and datapad and strode to the exit of his office, leaving the shinies to the still sizable load of documents to review. The second he opened the door several new messages popped up on his pad. He frowned. Thire AND Thorn? What in all Corellian Hells had happened now?!  
He opened Thires’ message.  
“KARK”  
Blink and Task jerked up, clearly startled. (Commander Fox never swears, at least not out loud)  
Fox turned, still standing in the open doorway, and now faced them both with an unreadable expression. For several seconds he just stared at them.  
“Sir? Is… is everything all right?” Came a hesitant question from the table.  
Still standing in front of the open door Commander Fox of the Coruscant Guard tilted his head slightly, looked back down on his datapad and blinked.  
“That is the question now, isn’t it?” and after a pause he looked back up and added:  
“Chancellor Palpatine is dead.”


	2. Welcome back, Chancellor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i lied  
> i already have the next chapter (i was surprisingly productive)

“Kriff, vod, don’t tell Kelly, but I think I’m having hallucinations again, I just heard Commander Fox saying that the Chancellor kicked the bucket” Blink groaned before he once more slumped against his stack of flimsi, “I really should’ve tuned down on the caffeine.”  
Task muttered something that sounded like “Kelly will get you anyways, vod.” Which… was true, in Fox’ experience the medic always found out exactly how many kafs and stim shots he’d gotten, even the ones he “confiscated” from shinies. He suspected that the medic had his very own surveillance network and had hacked at least ten mouse droids. But he never had found any proof of this claim.  
Fox blinked. He had zoned out again, not a good sign. Kelly could not be allowed to know this.  
Again! Karking Palpatine and his force-damned documents! He really could have used that sleep right now!  
And a terrible realization hit him.  
“Oh, no,” he whispered to himself.  
Palpatine was dead. The kriffing Chancellor of the Republic got offed by a living tank gone haywire in the centre of republic space in the middle of the day, with no emergency plan whatsoever to ensure an orderly process of re-election or a stand-in of any sorts (It was almost as if the old cryptid thought he couldn’t die). But since he WAS dead now this only meant one (1) thing for Fox:  
Work. Loads and Loads and LOADS of kriffing paperwork (Not to mention the absolute PR nightmare this situation was). He couldn’t even drop this clusterfuck off to Mas Amedda, because that man's paperwork found its way into his office almost faster than Palpatine’s’…  
Which was exactly, why Fox did not at all want the Vice-Chancellor to get the post. Call it self-preservation.  
Force take him, he REALLY wasn’t designed for this.  
Feeling weirdly… detached from reality, Fox closed the door, placed helmet and datapad back on the table, walked over to his couch and, with a loud groan slumped down on it face first. Nevermind that those shinies bore witness to this, he could always threaten them later to preserve his reputation. One of them, not the loudmouth, no, the other, seemed to be… saying something to him, but it was as if he was speaking through a pillow, all muffled.  
Why?  
Why could Palpatine not have waited until Fox at least had had a nap before getting himself killed by a being that had probably more sentient rights than him and his brothers…!  
“..ir? …Sir?” he heard a quiet inquiry from a direction vaguely above him. He turned his head sideways and could now see the deeply unsettled face of Task, who hovered at his side.  
Fox grumbled and fished one of his blasters from the holster on his hip (not that easy when lying down and only barely conscious) and pressed it against the startled shinies torso. Luckily, he took it, so Fox could let his arm slump down again, nice.  
He turned his head a little more towards the now definitely panicking Task.  
“If someone wants to come in, blast ‘em.”  
Task blinked. And stared. Rude.  
“Heard me, shiny?” he growled (channelling his inner Commander Cody).  
“But Sir! With all due respect, I can’t just start shooting inside the senate building! Especially not in the current situation!”, Task all but screamed, and yep, that was definitely a panicking shiny right there. Speaking of which, where was the other one? The loudmouth was long overdue for a comment.  
Blink was in fact still in the room. He hadn’t even left his place on the table. But what he had, was passed out, whether out of exhaustion, relief or shock or an unholy combination of any of the three, was unclear…  
Fox turned over to the side, to see better if he had to call Kelly (for Blink, not for him). There was a dry, crisp sound and he belatedly realized that the ancient piece of flimsi had still been in his kama-pocket. He let out a sigh and dragged himself up again (still under the concerned gaze of Task, who thankfully did not reach out to help him or the last bit of his pride would have been vaporized).He reached into his pocket, to see how badly he had damaged the document and if he, in addition to everything else, would have to pay a visit to the archivists to explain the destruction of a “piece of history” or how they call this stuff.  
His fingers had barely made contact with the flimsi, when he froze.  
Immediately, Task once again turned his focus fully on the Commander (he still clutched Fox’ blaster with both hands, as if the weapon was the last lifeline connecting him to a reality where the galaxy still made sense). “Sir? Is everything all right? Are you feeling well? You DID drink a lot of kaf, if you are having a heart attack, I need to call for Kelly NOW…”  
“Quiet, shiny!”, he barked (big mistake, he felt as if the mother of all migraines was knocking against his skull). Once again, he groaned.  
Then he added “Go and wake the loudmouth, I have to ask him some things pertaining this lovely piece of writing” and he fished the piece of flimsi out of his pocket, or, well, a fragment of it. He flinched. The archives it was, then.  
The idea, that had formed in his head was ingenious. It would take care of all his problems in life. No more signatures to forge! No more unreasonable last-minute orders of luxury goods! And best of all, no more overtime-work for Fox because someone wants to assemble more emergency powers! Hells, perhaps even the kriffing war was going to go more smoothly! Maybe the Separatists would just give up! (ok, the last ones were quite possibly a little farfetched, but Fox was parsecs over the point of caring anymore)  
As Task dragged a still half delirious Blink front of the couch, more and more possible advantages unfolded themselves before his inner eye.  
“Blink.”  
Blink blinked.  
“Shiny, focus on me. Tell me, is there anything in this …”, and he waved the flimsipiece in their faces “that specifies that the challenger has to be humanoid, a citizen of the republic or what level of sentience he or she has to possess?”  
The two shinies both looked equally baffled. After hesitating for a second Blink shook his head slowly. “Well, no, Sir… But still, I doubt you or any of the vode could use this rule to become chancellor. Task is probably right, they can and will argue that we do not count as sentients, plus it is forbidden for us clones to …” but before he could carry on, Fox had sprung up from his couch and grabbed his shoulders excitedly.  
“But it does NOT have to be humanoid? Any creature that has been proven to be at least partially sentient could theoretically become chancellor, given they best the previous one?”  
The strange gleam in the Commanders eyes was slightly scary (call it what you want, inspiration, fever, the weird new ceiling lights…)  
Bink stammered, uncomfortable under his superiors piercing stare. “Well, given that certain senators also are not really humanoid, that shouldn’t be a factor, no. And I think the exact wording was that the challenger has to show a “superior battle prowess” which traditionally was determined in a fight.” (Hearing that wording, Fox had the slightest suspicion that this document had been from the same era as the one with the domesticated nexu permit)  
“So if I have a being of proven grade of sentience who did do exactly that, said being has a absolutely legal claim to the seat of the chancellor?”  
Blink squirmed “I guess? Though I still don’t get what you want to accomplish, Sir…”  
But Task next to him had frozen at Fox last question. Realization dawned on his face.  
“Commander! You cannot POSSIBLY…”  
Fox looked at him with the biggest grin he was physically able to crack (and sweet force, that image would follow Task into his nightmares).  
“I can and I will.”  
Not even a second after the words had left his lips a tremor that sent all three of them tumbling to the ground went through the whole building, followed by a deafening roar.  
In the silence that followed afterwards, Fox mumbled “Welcome back, Chancellor.”


	3. Clearly a Master of Evasive Maneuvering

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was almost just as tired as Fox whilst finishing this, so idk, if there are inconsistencies... that's just Fox not really getting reality anymore.

Listen, Fox may not have been FULLY operational at that time, but it still was no reason at all to involve Kelly in this. So, when Task had commed the medic (why was he looking so concerned, Fox was fine!) and he had bolted out of his office, that was absolutely justified.  
Well, at least it seemed as if the rest of the Senate Guard had started the evacuation of the building. Why, he was not entirely sure (it was only the new Chancellor, what’s there to panic about?), but it seemed all going according to protocol, so they might as well do this as some sort of drill.   
Maybe he’d even get to discreetly remove Orn Free Taa’s porgs this time.  
(Maybe the new chancellor was interested in a light snack?)  
Kark it, when speaking of the devil… Just as he turned around another corner, he was greeted by the incredible sight of the massive blue senator trying to hastily coordinate his aides and a few unfortunate guards along the way. Which shouldn’t have posed as much of a challenge, weren’t there at least five of those infernal little pests stacked atop of each one of them… The poor men (and women). He really needed to put an end to this madness. At some point. In the future. Maybe he would involve Task, the vod had seemed to hate the little pests almost as much as Fox himself. …Then again, Task did just try to call Kelly on him, so maybe he would instead order his armour shined and then assign him on porg-sitting duty. They just LOVED shiny things.  
Fox was decidedly Not Crackling at that thought. Nope. Not At All.  
Several passing guards shot him some confused and alarmed looks. Yes, Kelly was definitely going to hear about this episode of his. Wait. Why were they even able to see him grin? Fox touched his face. No helmet. Yeah, he’d totally forgotten to take that one with him, no wonder everyone was staring. Fox always wore his helmet (It allows him to roll his eyes at the senators without consequences).  
Kriff, he’d also left one of is blasters in his office! And in the hands of a shiny nonetheless!   
Ok, maybe, possibly, a visit at Kelly’s would be a good idea.   
(He had also forgotten to take his datapad with him, but that was not as worrying)  
Fox came to another crossroad. Where was he even going? At some point he’d have to get back to that. But for now, putting distance between himself and any medical check-up was a priority. Did this make sense? Probably not, but he kinda was way past the point of caring anymore. He just couldn’t deal with Kelly’s disappointed stare anymore (it always seemed to judge him and every single life-choice he had ever made). Fox shuddered. He needed to find a place where no mouse droid could ever find him. For a second he contemplated just disappearing into one of the storage rooms on the lower levels, but then he remembered that Kelly would probably look there first after the “incident” that later had been dubbed “The Very Sudden And Mysterious 10 Hour Vacation of Senator Bail Organa”.  
Fox could totally understand the man, he too ever so often wanted to just disappear into a dark room and contemplate the existence and/or murder of certain individuals.   
Silently going through all the security measures in the building he wandered further through the now mostly deserted hallways. Seemed the evacuation/ drill was running more smoothly than usual, maybe they should do their regular drills also unannounced? He’d have to look at this with Thire.   
Force, so many new things to keep in mind again!  
Quiet. Just one hour of peace and quiet, that was all Fox was asking for.   
He just had to make sure that Kelly couldn’t find him for that long. And that was literally the only problem! He almost couldn’t believe it, but with this being officially an emergency evacuation, they’d need HIS clearance to let the people back in the building again… So, for as long as he wouldn’t be able to answer any messages with his Helmet and his pad being in an entirely different section of the building, he was completely alone! Provided Kelly did not declare him unfit for duty and pulled rank as the acting medical officer, but with all the panicking senators and whatever, he too probably had other stuff to attend to first.  
The question was though, if this would take him long enough for Fox to finally get a nap. Probably not, the medic was frighteningly efficient.  
The best course of action in that case was to find a room where no security cameras were installed, so that he couldn’t be located immediately, and the others would have to reconstruct and follow his path through the hallways.  
Yeah, that should give him enough time.  
Now the only thing he needed was a room that fulfilled those criteria.   
Then Fox had a moment of sudden enlightenment. The floaty pod room! The room with the floaty pods where senate sessions were held! They weren’t allowed to install permanent cameras there because of confidentiality or something… (something about not finished sessions or negotiations not reaching the public too early)  
The Grand Convocation Chamber! That’s what it’s called, right. (Horribly pretentious name if one would have asked Fox.)  
Yes, that one would do perfectly.  
Fox turned around sharply. He walked the path to his destination with the determination of a man who had not seen sleep since a good week and was now finally presented with the possibility of sweet oblivion. They should clear the building more often, it was so relaxing to be able to walk around and not be held up by yet another senator asking how far along the Chancellor (and by that they actually meant Fox himself) had come in reviewing their stupid little inquiries and requests.   
Finally arriving in front of one of the elevators that lead directly to the lowest level of the Chamber, he was almost vibrating with excitement (that, or it WAS in fact all the caffeine… well, he’d know in about an hour, as soon as Kelly had inevitably caught him).  
Using his personal security clearance, he overrid the emergency lockdown protocol, which shut down any elevator function, and entered.  
As soon as the doors closed again, he heard the sound. A very familiar squeak.  
What in all the Karking Corellian Hells was a kriffing porg doing here?!   
The poor little critter tried valiantly to escape from Fox’ clutches, but it vas in vain. With no chance to escape into a vent or the billowing dress of a noblewoman it was easy prey, even for the still slightly disoriented Commander. Just as he held it in front of his face, contemplating what to do with it now, the doors opened again.  
Automatically Fox stepped into the Grand Convocation Chamber.  
And then he remembered.  
Ah, yes… there HAD been a giant monster on the loose.  
The Zillobeast opened its eyes.


	4. Naughty Children Get The Sleep Compulsion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (this is pretty short, i am aware.)  
> I do not know why i thought this was a good idea, hope no ones brain gets broken.

Nest.  
Cozy. Dark… Safe.   
Like burrows-under-surface back on where-born-and-raised. Not like narrow-high-and-spiky not-trees-not-rocks that covered this here-and-not-there. No life-in-earth here. No growth. Only structures-that-are-nests and little-ones that brought them to this Here. Nest was also no-of-live-things. No worries, they can change that in things-that-will-come. They had sensed a cluster of live-that-grows-and-dies near Nest. A good Nest was decorated by them-and-not-others.  
Then find things-to-eat. Little-one that was touched-and-twisted by the wrongness-that-sleeps-in-hunger was neither tasty nor filling. But wrong-ones had to be put down or they would infect all other-tribe and it had seemed that the other little-ones would not do it.  
So, THEY did it.   
And now was time for sleep-that-was-real and not nothingness-made-by-little-ones.  
Now curled up in Nest, slowly drifting away, they stretched out their senses to feel for any possible intruders. Satisfied they felt all the little life-lights run away from Nest.  
No.  
There was one little-one that…. seemed to have trouble finding he path-to-outside? Softly they touched that little-light. Immediately the Zillobeast let out a grumble. So it was one of those little-ones that were there when big-light-that-was-loud-and-death ripped apart earth-and-stone back on where-born-and-raised. The same little-ones also were there during nothingness-made-by little-ones. Touching their life-lights felt weird. They were still-hatchling-but-already-grown as well as all-the-same-but different and some must have been touched by the wrong-one, the wrongness-that-sleeps-in-hunger already had fed on their life-lights. This one in particular seemed to have a very doused life-light; it flickered like the ones of hatchlings-that-came-too-early and was fogged over by numbness-that-came-with-too-little-rest.  
Suddenly the little-one’s light spiked and steadied a little.  
As if a hatchling had found its first prey.  
A tired little hatchling.  
Oh! It seemed to come to… the Nest?  
Did the little-one-that-was-tired-hatchling not know the Nest was already occupied? It was rude to come to Nests of other-kind without prey-to-offer-for-tribe or nest-fluff…  
Then it suddenly stood in the weird once-closed-now-open path to the Nest. They could smell the little-one, it smelled like no-sleep and anger-stuffed-below-surface. Now there also was a spike of surprise-that-turned-in-uncertainty, still only barely breaking through the fog of numbness. They opened their eyes, to see the little-one-that-intrudes.  
A red hatchling, well red-and-white. And it had hunted! It had brought prey! Even if it was a truly tiny prey, so tiny that they hadn’t even noticed its life-light. But to still be hunting while numbness-from-lack-of-sleep clouds the life-light-that-that-lights-the-hunt was a feat to be rewarded.  
The Zillobeast was pleased with this hatchling. Yes, it definitely had potential.  
Now, if only it got some rest.  
They stretched out their senses again, brushing softly against the little-ones flickering life-light. It flinched a little and struggled against the sleep-now-drift-away-nod they gave its life-light. Ha, cheeky little hatchling. Lulling it completely into the sleepiness, they stretched out an arm to catch. Hatchlings need to be protected. The Zillobeast curled around the softly breathing little-one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm not saying the Zillobeast is gonna raid the Jedi Temple of all its plants, but that's totally what's gonna happen.


	5. A Gift That Just Keeps on Giving

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fox is still confused, but at least he's slept.

Fox slowly drifted back into conscience, his limbs feeling incredibly heavy. He softly groaned and flopped over to the side. Just lying there, he tried to collect his thoughts enough to figure out where the Kriff he currently was. Slowly rubbing his fingers over the ground he hazily remembered getting to the Convocation Chamber. Which was weird because he didn’t remember the floor there to be full of ridges and kind of … bumpy?  
He cracked his eyes open as far as he could. Which wasn’t a lot.  
What he managed to make out was all very dimly lit, which added to the small alarms going off in the backside of his still kind of woozy brain. He was pretty sure though, that when he had entered the Chamber, the lights had functioned normally…   
Right, when he had entered… hadn’t there been one of those force-damned porgs? Yes, he was pretty sure he had found one in the elevator, just before the doors had opened and …  
Oh kark.  
The Beast.  
The giant monster that had killed Palpatine. Fox had practically run into it (But what had it even been doing in the Grand Convocation Chamber?). At least he now got why there had been an evacuation. What were Thorn and Thire even doing? Letting it break into the Senate Building… it was as if they still were shinies. His thoughts drifted away again for a moment, wondering if Task and Blink also had fled the building. But what had happened afterwards? His whole memory was more than a little fuzzy, something that he knew intimately and had strong suspicions of being in direct correlation with his lack of sleep. But as long as he didn’t listen when Kelly tried to explain it to him, he had the benefit of plausible deniability.  
Well, whatever had happened, was the reason for him being in this… situation. He had no recollection of leaving the Convocation Chamber, so wherever he was, someone (or something) had to have brought him here… wherever “here” was.  
So, Fox took the next logical step. He once again tried to assess his surroundings. This time, he even managed to sit up. Luckily enough, there seemed to be a wall of sorts right behind him (it was also made from that weird, bumpy, kinda organic looking material.   
It was weirdly familiar…  
But Fox had absolutely no idea where he could have seen it before? Was this one of the custom-made interiors that senators sometimes ordered for their chambers? Palpatine had done it, though personally, Fox always thought the red didn’t do the room any good. But he didn’t know of any senator who had ordered anything like this. He knew, because approving of those requests had (what a surprise) Very Quickly become his job after Palpatine had started promising them to his “friends”. Plus, there was still the mystery of what had happened to the Zillobeast. Where had it gone? Coruscant was a cityplanet, the only spaces wide enough to accommodate a being as large as it were certain plazas on the upper level. Well, those, and apparently the Grand Convocation Chamber, which had sported a brand-new hole in the ceiling.  
Suddenly, a tremor went trough the “ground” he sat on, and the walls started …shifting?   
Fox immediately threw himself down and grabbed onto some of the larger ridges. Facing downwards, he didn’t really see it, but he definitely felt himself being lifted upwards. It was the same weird feeling one gets in elevators. He also noticed his surroundings getting brighter.   
As soon as the movement stopped, he scrambled to his knees and then immediately froze.   
He was staring directly into a gigantic greenish-yellow eye. A big eye that belonged to an even bigger creature, which was currently holding Fox in his palm.  
He did not faint. No. (But it was a close one…)  
Fox scolded himself. Of karking course the weird surface had seemed familiar; it was this creature’s kriffing hide! He could have kicked himself. But, alas, the only thing he did do was sitting there and staring stupidly. He was confused. The Zillobeast just kept staring at him. No eating or anything. Maybe he still was dreaming? Unlikely, but it did make more sense than what was happening now. Well, if this was a dream…   
Fox coughed.  
“Ehh…” he licked his lips “Good…Evening?”  
Fox had no idea what time of day it was, but whatever. He was probably dreaming anyways, so who cared. If this was in fact reality, then he was already in the creature’s palm, so… Not a lot to lose there as well. So, he decided to make small talk with it (He had, after all, declared it Chancellor of the Republic. Fox was nothing if not professional).   
The beast bent back its head and huffed a gust of warm breath into his face.   
Then he felt it. Something in his thoughts, that decidedly was not from himself. He let out a little yelp and clutched his head, still staring at the beast. That thing had karking Jedi powers? Why had nobody ever cared to mention that? That kriffing doctor! Fox was sure she had at least suspected, as insistent as that woman had been on the creature’s sentience. But why bother telling Fox anything, he just was the one who had to more or less coordinate planetary security, right? Good Force, Thorn and Thire had had no idea what they went up against.  
Again. Another brush against his thoughts. Oh no, Fox was really not equipped to deal with this. Nobody had mentioned in his job description that dealing with giant mind-reading monsters would be part of it.  
”Would you please stop this!”  
Immediately he cringed, yelling at a giant monster probably wasn’t very conductive to his situation.  
To his surprise he was not eaten. The only thing he felt was a slight tap of… disappointment and reprove? Fox was confused. The Zillobeast was… scolding him?  
“What is happening?”, he mumbled to himself. He had no idea.  
Another tap, this time it was an inquiry of sorts. Fox didn’t understand. His confusion was noticed by the creature, which had the consequence that the foreign presence in his mind grew stronger. A picture of him sleeping was projected into his mind, coupled with the inquiry. Fox mind blanked.  
“I’m sorry…. You want to… know how I slept?” Fox voice sounded very weird. He was deeply grateful that nobody had heard that.  
Confirmation.  
Fox blinked. “So… it was you who just knocked me out? Karking Hells, how I hate that force osik.2 he hesitated a bit, then relented “But yes, I haven’t slept that… long in a while.” (That being said, he definitely had to find out how long exactly he had been out…)  
Satisfaction flooded over him.   
Force, his day couldn’t possibly get any weirder.


	6. Stop Panakin

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> good lords, the heat makes my braincells die at an even faster pace than normal.

First things first, Fox needs to get his datapad. Mostly to find out how long he’d been asleep, but he probably also should tell Thorn and Thire that he had neither deserted nor died.  
He also needed to get in touch with the Jedi Temple. The Zillobeast had been very adamant about… plants. At least Fox thought they wanted plants, from the pictures that had been planted in his mind. He wasn’t sure though, Malastare plant life seemed very… foreign. Maybe the Jedi would know more. If not, he’d personally track down that thrice-karking-damned doctor wo had been in charge of that operation.  
Who was he kidding, he would do that anyways.  
But first, his datapad.  
So, Fox was powerwalking through the empty hallways of the senate building and making a mental list of things he needed to take care of. To his own (pleasant) surprise it was a lot shorter than when he had to do this under Palpatine’s chancellorship. The main thing was just to get the plants. He also needed to update the other commanders, as well as end the lockdown. The senators would have to postpone all major voting sessions a bit, but that should be fine, most of the scheduled bills had come from Palpatine’s henchmen.  
Fox took another turn and finally arrived at his office. Shortly wondering if Task and Blink were still inside, he punched in his clearance codes and entered.  
Nope, nobody here.  
The pad and his helmet still were on the table where he left them (before fleeing from Task who wanted to snitch on Kelly). His brain almost stopped when he checked the time. Even though he did not know exactly when he had left, it had been at least around 14 standard hours. Sweet Force, he hadn’t slept that long since… well, probably never, as even back on Kamino they never slept more than eight hours. Chewing at the inside of his cheek, he sat down and unlocked the datapad. Immediately messages from at least a dozen different channels popped up.  
He groaned (he could do that, now that nobody saw him).  
Well, almost nobody. He felt a slight tap of curiosity against his mind. The Zillobeast had been hanging around in the back of his mind ever since he had left the Convocation Chamber and must have felt the change in his mood. He ignored them and tapped on the first channel, one of the Commando Group Chats. He immediately regretted that, as it mostly was Rex and Ponds screaming about the murder of Palpatine and the Zillobeast being on the run. He just sent them a reminder that they were technically badmouthing the new Chancellor of the Republic and that that was a punishable crime.  
Then he switched over to his group channel with Thorn and Thire.  
Sweet Force, that were a LOT of messages. He skimmed them and most of them were also pertaining the murder of the Chancellor, the Zillobeast’s occupation of the Grand Convocation Chamber (oh, so THEY had known it had gone there?) and the evacuation effort. But the last couple dozen messages were different. They all were about Fox’ whereabouts, whether he was alive or not or, weirdly enough, the status of his sanity.  
So, Task and Blink must have snitched to them too. Or maybe it had been Kelly.  
Regardless, those two shinies were up for porg duty for the next, let’s say four weeks, or however long it would take Fox to get Kelly off his back. The medic was exceedingly stubborn, even if one repeatedly reassured him that all was fine. It made Fox seem like a liar.  
Which he was not.  
He sighed and started typing a message.  
In short, it said that no, he hadn’t died at the hands of the Zillobeast, said being was still napping in the Convocation Chambers (at least he hoped they were, he had no idea how to contact them from his side. Fox was not schooled in the use of that Jedi mumbo-jumbo) and that he still was sane, no matter what lies two misled shinies were sprouting. In addition to that he advised them to meet up with him in the entrance hall to the Senate Building, preferably in the company of a Jedi. He gave them ten minutes. Almost immediately, the other two flooded the channel with messages asking where he’d been and what had happened. Fox just closed the chat and ignored them, skimming over the rest of the chats. Nothing too important, just several different vode asking about his whereabouts and Kelly ordering him to get his ass over to the medical station.  
Yeah, he was going to avoid that one.  
Fox checked the time. Good, he still had time to get himself some kaf.  
With the datapad under his arm, he set off to meet up with Thorn, Thire and whichever Jedi the two might bring along. On the way down his pad pinged several times in quick succession, so he just set it to silent mode. Whatever problems they had; they wouldn’t be his.  
After getting his kaf, he strode to the entrance hall.  
To his surprise, the two Commanders were already there, as well as Ponds and… General Windu? He paused and took a sip from his kaf, observing them from around the corner. They all looked pretty tense, Windu and Ponds especially. From what he knew from the reports, those two had been there when the Zillobeast had been brought to Coruscant (at least Windu had protested), so they probably felt responsible for everything that was happening now.  
He stepped around the corner and was immediately spotted by Windu, who seemed to all but radiate tension. There was a faint brush of annoyance and disapproval at the back of his mind, as the Zillobeast probably recognized one of their captors. “Oh, shush now, nobody told you to hang around in my mind, and I need him to get you those kriffing plants,” he muttered angrily, not sure if they would even get the message.  
“Fox!” A wide-eyed Thorn jogged towards him. “Vod, where were you? Task said you just disappeared half delirious after you heard of the demise of Chancellor Palpatine and…”  
“Ex- Chancellor,” Fox interrupted him, sipping at his kaf.  
The confused stare that followed this statement almost made him chuckle, but as it was he only let out a quite undignified gurgling sound into his kaf cup.  
“He’s been defeated in combat by a being with proven sentience, so before his death he lost the post. Didn’t Task and Blink tell you?”  
Fox’ shoulders were grabbed quite suddenly (he even spilled some of his kaf!) and he met the concerned gazes of three Clone Commanders and one Jedi General. Thorn, the one holding him in his grip, stared at him intensely. “The shinies said you were sprouting nonsense, vod, but… I didn’t think it would be that bad. Have you hit your head somewhere? Did you overdose on caffeine and stim-shots again? Oh Force, did you…”  
Fox shrugged his brother off and took a step back, arms crossed.  
“Thorn, calm yourself. I did none of those things, in fact, I’ve been asleep for the good part of the last 14 hours. I am fully functioning, and I have no time for your nonsense.” Then he turned towards the General, who sported a fascinating combination of impatience, stress and concern on his frowning face.  
“Sir, I’d like to requisition some plant life from the Jedi Temple. There should be roughly enough to fill the Grand Convocation Chamber, right?”


	7. PLANTS! PLANTS! PLANTS!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you know the "MC DONALDS! MC DONALDS! MC DONALDS!" meme? this is it, just with the car being Fox' mind.

So, Commander Fox of the Coruscant Guard was not having A Good Time.  
Instead of taking his request up to the Jedi Council, the General, that shabuir, had knocked him out.  
With. The. Force.   
Now he was sitting on a field bed in what seemed to be a makeshift medbay, after what must have been at least twenty different scans and having his blood taken away from him for another dozen or so. He glanced around, pointedly trying to ignore the looming figure of Kelly, who was furiously typing away on his datapad. Logically speaking, he was aware that he could not possibly be in the Senate Medbay; they had evacuated the whole building. But he still was strangely affected by waking up in an unfamiliar location. It seemed kinda wrong to see Kelly and the other medics being removed from their usual surroundings.   
Speaking of Kelly. He had Not Been Happy with any Fox’ vitals. Not even remotely okay with them either. And now he had banned the Commander from getting stimulants of any kind (Fox would have to improvise there…).  
As he was sitting there, an IV attached to his arm (which he definitely was Not Fiddling With, like, at all) and only dressed in his blacks, he suddenly felt yet another mental tap.   
He slumped back down on the bed, groaning, which prompted an angry glare from Kelly.   
The presence in his mind grew stronger, more… annoying.  
“Sweet force, shaddup”, he grumbled.  
Sadly enough, it did not seem to work. Whether that was because Fox was being ignored or it just did not work like that with the weird force mumbo-jumbo, he did not know. Neither did it matter, because suddenly his mind was being flooded with vague concepts of plants (at least, if that’s what the plant life on Malastare looked like). The Zillobeast’s curious prodding became more impatient and more pronounced, which resulted in an angry cascade of curses from Fox. Desperately clutching his head, he rolled over and sat up on the edge of the bed.  
His erratic behaviour though had attracted the attention of Kelly, who immediately appeared next to him. The medic squinted angrily and pushed him down again. “Oh no, Commander, where do you think you are going with a blood sugar level that is near non-existent? Not to speak of your caffeine-intake, which should have, by all means, already killed you?!” He seemed to list further Things That Were Wrong with Fox’ general health charts, but he could not hear any of them.  
Why?  
Because his brain was being karking flooded by LIVINGTHINGSTHATGROWANDDIEANDBLOOM and NESTEMPTYANDCOLDANDDEADANDNOTHINGNESSNEEDSTOBECHANGED coupled with GOGOGOBRINGME and HATCHLINGSTILLTIREDNEEDSMOREREST.  
Which, clearly, did not help an already dizzy Commander Fox.   
Kelly on the other hand seemed to take his gentle wobbling as both proof of his claims and cause for more concern.   
Why was that man mothering him so much? Fox was a reasonably functioning adult and regular medical check-ups were for people who had time to spare. So, if the medic could now gently Kriff off, so that he finally could get them stupid Jedi Temple plants, that would be wonderful.  
“What in the name of all that’s good and bright would compel you to get plants now?”  
Ah, he must have said that one out loud.  
Kelly narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “Yes, you did.”  
“Crap”, the Commander muttered to himself. Why was he still so dizzy? He had slept. A lot, even. Must be the cursed force-powered, mind-invading and plant-obsessed creature that seemed to have found a nice and cosy little spot in the back of his mind. Maybe he needed another nap. But best back where no one could disturb him (the Zillobeast had served that purpose very nicely). Hm, yes, he just had to get Windu to get him those karking plants, so the constant whining would stop (why was a hundreds of meters tall murder beast whining for plants like a certain blue senator whined for his porgs?). The plan was fool proof. He just had to somehow get Kelly that menace out of his way.  
“Commander are you hallucinating?”, said menace asked, seemingly quite distressed, while checking his eyes and scrolling through mysterious health charts on his pad. Fox knew it was all an act. Everyone knew medics were terrifying, so he had seen through Kelly’s façade the moment he had been assigned to the Guard. He had heard from Rex and Cody (and all the other Commanders as well) how terrifyingly evil medics were, and seeing Kelly act all nice and concerned only deepened his suspicions.  
This was a trick question, he was sure.   
Fox raised an eyebrow and tried “No?”  
Kelly did not seem impressed.  
Fox frowned. “… Yes?”  
This also seemed to be wrong, as the medic just sighed and raked his fingers through his hair.  
“Listen, Kelly, vod. as I am currently nursing what seems to be the mother of all migraines because an overgrown Jedi monster decided that my head is the perfect place to scream about wanting to rob some plants, I would like to kindly ask you to step aside so I can track General Windu down.” He tried to sound professional, he really did. And maybe it had sounded way better in his head (amongst the constant abstract utterings about plants and nests). But as soon as he had said it out loud, he realized his mistake.  
Yeah, not gonna sound sane with that one.  
The local medic appeared to have stopped working. Huh, did he finally break him?  
But before Fox could do anything, his mind was once again flooded by the Zillobeast’s desperate want for greenery. He was taking everything back he had said before. Curse this, this was the exact same as with Palpatine.   
Okay, maybe not AS bad. The Zillobeast couldn’t possibly make him do any paperwork, right? They probably couldn’t understand the concept or use of it (The use being mostly to run Fox into an early grave…). On the other hand, Palpatine hadn’t lingered in his head all the time.   
Letting out a deep sigh and massaging the bridge of his nose, he looked at the medic. “Ignore that, could you? Just please, for the sake of my sanity, get me General Windu here. No, scratch that, any Jedi will do. I’ll even accept that madman Vos.” He sounded like a man that had given up on all hope.  
Just anyone who could actually communicate with the karking beast. And tell them to keep their karking plant thought to themselves.  
Why did he ever think this was a good idea?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SURPRISE! Kelly actually is a really nice guy, Fox is just a distrustful idiot.


	8. A Visit from the Chancellor

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> incredible, its already been a month. I've never been this productive.
> 
> But hey, i now have a tumblr, so if anyone has questions/ideas for me, yer welcome :) (i am a cool grandma now)  
> its the same name as here.

Things had looked up. They really had.  
He had managed to dodge the hypo Kelly had aimed at him. He was able to rip off the IV, which stung, but it had enabled him to roll off the bed and bring a healthy distance between himself and any and all medics present. Hells, even the General had shown up! (Now that he thought about it Fox was really thankful that it had been Windu and NOT Vos or Skywalker…) Admittedly, there also had been quite a lot of chaos, as they proceeded to gang up on him. But he had almost succeeded in getting them, especially Windu, to listen to him.  
Then the screaming started.  
For a split-second Fox was confused as to why people outside could possibly be screaming (and were that blasters he heard??), but then there was a deafening and very familiar roar.  
Yeah, kinda should have seen that one coming…  
Now there was a lot of shouting and general panic, the General and several of his men had immediately sprinted back outside, Kelly and the medics also suddenly had other priorities than chasing Fox around yet another table and the man himself used that to do the only reasonable thing: sneak out. As he wiggled his way to the exit, he was painfully aware that he missed his helmet, blasters and armour. That would definitely attract attention, but then again, not many people knew his face as he almost never took his helmet off or when he did, it was behind mountains of work in his office. So, it should be okay, the most important part was getting distance between himself and anything medbay-related.  
The plan was not thought through perfectly, as, when he stepped outside (oh, so they had set up camp on the plaza…), he immediately stood face to face with the Zillobeast again.  
Well, more like face to foot.  
The gigantic creature filled what was most of the plaza without even fully standing on it. Fox did NOT want to think about all the reparation costs that this would cause. Even from his limited point of view he spied several damaged buildings and at least one crushed fountain. Needless to say, he deeply regretted any of his actions of the past 20 hours.  
Aaand the Zillobeast had recognized him. Great. Absolutely fantastic.  
There was no escape.  
But there was a lot of blaster fire.  
Although it did not harm the Zillobeast in any way, it DID seem to annoy them. Which, for one: annoyed giant beast on a cityplanet? Not a good idea. And secondly, it also meant that Fox brain was being flooded with thoughts that were not his via the newly installed backdoor. There is a point, at which every man breaks, and for Commander Fox of the Coruscant Guard that point had been reached at that exact moment.  
“STOP THIS RIGHT NOW!”  
Panting from screaming at the top of his lungs, he stalked towards the creature. Behind him somewhere he heard some of his brothers (maybe Thorn or Ponds?) screaming something about “staying away from the monster”. Another voice was yelling for a medic to get “the lunatic away from the line of fire” (wait, had that been the General?). Anyways, Fox ignored all of it.  
There was a low grumble coming from above as the Zillobeast lowered their head to stare at him. He crossed his arms.  
“Get the kark out of my head! I am no kriffing Jedi, go bother THEM.” He gestured towards General Windu who stood across the plaza, ignited lightsabre in one hand, massaging his temple with the other. He seemed to have a headache; Fox could relate.  
The Zillobeast made another sound and simultaneously sent a mental inquiry about the plants.  
“I WAS WORKING ON IT, OKAY? You could have waited a little, now look at this mess…!” That being said, he had absolutely no idea how long Windu had knocked him out for. He hoped it hadn’t been another 14 hours. “Take it up with the Jettiise, I’m not karking made for this Force mumbo-jumbo. It’s their plants anyways!” He exasperatedly threw his arms in the air.  
“Do you see this? Do you see what destruction you caused just now? And I’m not even talking about what you did when you first broke free. Just look at all the collateral damage! Guess what, it’s gonna be ME who will have to file all those karking complaints and reparation requests!....”  
Oh, venting really helped. Kelly hadn’t been lying when he said that, who would have known…  
Fox looked up to the Zillobeast, silently challenging. Sadly, all that he received from them was slight confusion and concern, gentle exasperation and the suggestion of another nap. Yeah, he should have guessed that they wouldn’t understand.  
His shoulders slumped down and he massaged his nose bridge.  
At least the shooting had stopped.  
He turned around and mustered the Jedi General, who was looking like he’d really appreciate an explanation (oh, didn’t they all…), then looked back to the Zillobeast, who still was gently prodding Fox’ mind with no clue of what was going on.   
Under the watchful eyes of around 100 brothers, one Jedi General and one gigantic murder beast he stalked over the plaza.   
He stopped at an healthy distance to Ponds, who was standing right behind the General and was shooting very suspicious looking glances to his wristcomm and the entrance of the medbay. Fox wasn’t going back there.  
Windu opened his mouth, a deep frown on his face, but Fox was faster.  
“So, back to the plants…”, he begun.  
The General’s hands snapped up and he found himself unable to continue, his tongue being held back by an invisible force. “KRIFF YOUR PLANTS!”, the man yelled “Commander, the Republic is currently leaderless in a war and you have disappeared for half a day, re-emerged suddenly, talking nonsense about plants and now you’ve screaming at the creature that killed the Chancellor and it did. Not. Kill. You.”, the man paused, and Fox could see it in his eyes; the pure desperation for an explanation.   
“Commander. What in all Corellian Hells is going on?”  
Fox waited a moment, then moved his jaw and tongue a bit, to see if he could talk now. His frame relaxed and he crossed his arms again.  
“They want plants.”  
The Jedi groaned and the throbbing veins on his forehead were quite concerning, but Ponds helpfully stepped in. “Fox, WHO wants plants and WHY?” His brother looked at him in quiet desperation, visibly uncomfortable next to his general, who looked like he was contemplating murder.  
“They.” Fox pointed back at the Zillobeast, who was observing them with a slightly tilted head.  
Ponds looked at him blankly. “The… monster wants…. Plants?”  
He nodded, “I think they want them, so the Senate Chamber feels more… alive? I think it’s a reasonable concern, it is quite sterile looking.”  
“Wait. Did you just say….. that the ……. Zillobeast is talking to you??”  
His fellow Commander and batchmate looked like he was having a stroke, while, simultaneously, Windu’s frame relaxed and instead of quiet murder he now exuded complete bafflement.   
Fox sighed. “They can do the Force thing. The showing stuff in your mind, it’s nor real talking. But they’ve been nagging me about plants and naps ever since I woke up again.” He looked over to the Jedi who seemed to finally realize, what was going on here. “Sir, please, that’s a Jedi thing, tell them it’s really annoying. And PLEASE get them those plants.”  
But the Jedi Master suddenly had a very distressed look on his face.  
“It is FORCE-SENSITIVE?!”


	9. Child, focus!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to let you people know that as i do not really plan what i write, your comments WILL influence coming chapters...  
> so keep it going ( ° w ° )/

There were more red-and-white-hatchlings!  
Were they close-kin of tired-little one? They too were still-hatchling-but-already-grown. Was the wide-place-between-narrow-spaces their home? After all the other little-ones had brought the tired-little-hatchling here after pulling him into more-sleep. They had approved at first, this hatchling needed more rest. He had still smelled of tiredness-that-lies-in-bones-and-mind. But then the wary little-one with the life-light-that-was-so-bright had kept him in sleepy-nothingness too long.  
They had gotten bad-feeling-before-trap-snaps. The bright-little-one had been there when they had put them into nothingness-made-by-littles-ones, maybe the same awaited the tired-little-one? He needed sleep, but that was not the right way.  
So, they had softly pushed the go-to-sleep out of the hatchling’s space-for-thoughts. Not much later they felt his life-light stir and flicker. Good, now they would get things-that-grow-and-die.   
The Zillobeast had waited, but nothing had happened.  
So, they had sent him little-taps-to-remind. Hatchlings were easily distracted by colourful-things-that-move or new-things-to taste-and touch. The hatchling had felt annoyed-angry at the reminder.  
Cheeky.  
But the cheeky little hatchling seemed to be in need of a better reminder. So, they left new-nest and went to where-the-hatchling-was. They really disliked the tall-and-narrow dens made of no-life and cold-hard earth; some of them were in-danger-of-crumbling when they tried to step on them and there was no solid-ground-of earth, only hollow-dens-beneath. All of this needed more life-that-grows. This-here-and-not-back-where-born-and-raised felt way to dead. Moreover, it reeked of the darkness-that lies-in-hunger-and-greed. No wonder there had been a wrong-one here.  
It was really concerning, how many of the life-lights they felt in their surroundings had been touched-by-darkness. Even the bright-little-one who kept them out of his space-of-inner-voice seemed tainted by it. It was difficult to say with the thick-wall-that felt-slippery that surrounded his inner-voice, only the erratic flickering of his life-light was a hint.  
Wide-place-between-narrow-spaces was still too small for them to fully stand there, so it was a little uncomfortable. New-nest was better.   
The close-kin of the tired-hatchling smelled like fear and confusion and the threw their small-bright-lights-that-scorch-the-ground at them. The Zillobeast could understand their reaction, they had seemingly entered the little-one’s territory without permission. Normally they would refrain from doing that, but lost hatchlings needed to be collected.  
They looked around. Tired-one’s life light was close.  
There!  
Oh, now he was chirping to them…   
As they could not understand tongue-of-little-ones; yes, the hatchling would need to learn to do inner-speak. He seemed to understand what they were saying. So, now he’d only have to learn how to reply.  
But he did feel angry and tired. Maybe he needed more sleep?  
As a response to their soft inquiry-for-sleep his life-light only spiked angrily.  
The Zillobeast blinked helplessly.  
What did the hatchling want? The live-things-that grow were close, so that couldn’t be the problem. He also wasn’t hurt-on-skin-or-beneath and seemed to not want sleep-that-was-offered…  
Yes. They’d really need to teach him to use his inner-voice.  
Now the hatchling stalked back to the other little-ones.  
They tried to make sense out of the chirping-and-wiggling, but the life-lights of the different hatchlings and little-ones were extremely confusing. It was no use.  
The Zillobeast grumbled a little.  
Suddenly, there was a tap to their space-of-inner-voice.  
They perked up. It had not come from their tired-little-hatchling, but from the little-one with the bright-life-light and the slippery-wall-around-inner-voice. Only now the wall had opened. They responded in an equal hello-tap and were met with AWECONFUSIONGUILT as the bright-one let some of his feelings slip through. They sent another tap of confirmation and consolation, being touched by a wrong-one was not the little-one’s fault.  
More confusion seeped through, but they focused on the more important things.  
Finally a little-one who could show them how to get the life-that-flowers-and-blooms to their nest.


	10. Plausible Deniability Would Be Appreciated

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> dunno if anyone got the small hint in the last chapter, but here ya go... XD
> 
> (also please tell me if it is too confusing, it strongly follows Fox' perspective, so it's all just as he sees it...)

Fox was a little lost.  
After the General had mentally conversed with the Zillobeast for what could not have been more than a minute, he had paled considerably, glanced over to Fox with an unreadable expression and then back to the beast. Just what had they told him? But before he could ask, that shabuir just rushed off.  
To Fox’ yelling after him what to do about the plants, he just threw his hand in the air and roared they could take them. Well that had been easy… The Guard Commander was perfectly fine with this turn of events, but Ponds stared after the quickly retreating form of his Jedi looking like a kicked Akk puppy. Force, from what he knew Windu usually let Ponds in on everything he planned, his brother getting left behind must have been a first. The poor sod.  
Oh no.  
Sleeping had returned his ability to feel stuff again. He shuddered.  
Well, things other than spite and rage in any case.  
He hesitated, but then awkwardly scurried closer to his brother and patting him on the shoulder a few times. At his touch Ponds’ shoulders only slumped further forward and a dejected sigh escaped the other’s lips. Fox shot a helpless glance towards Thorn, who stood a little to the side and was still clutching his blaster, suspiciously eyeing the Zillobeast.  
Yeah, no help there.  
So, he’d be doing it the Fox way; Distraction through work.  
He strengthened his grip on Ponds’ shoulder. “Come on, your General will come back. Until then you can help me get those plants into the Grand Convocation Chamber.” Yeah, Fox was bad at that comfort stuff. But it was true, they had a giant room that wasn’t going to fill itself with greenery, and Fox really wanted to be alone in his head again. So, when Ponds continued to stare at the direction in which Windu had taken off, Fox just dragged him towards the opposite end of the plaza.  
“Thorn! Get me a transport to the Jedi Temple, we’re gonna get those plants now,” he shouted over his shoulder. That seemed to startle the other guard out of his one-sided stare-down with the gigantic monster.  
“What?”  
“You heard me, Thorn, I want that transport to be here YESTERDAY!”  
Out of the corner of his eye Fox observed how his batchmate scrambled for his comm. Content, he continued to drag a weakly objecting Ponds across the plaza.  
Fox shortly considered to try to get the Zillobeast to return to the Senate Building, but since he had no idea how, he’d leave it to the universe. He just really hoped they would not cause any more property damage. On the way to the Jedi Temple he sent a notice to Thire that they could let the people back into the Senate (with the exception of the Grand Convocation Chamber) and that the Zillobeast was to be left alone.  
It was a rather quick ride, as the sky lanes were mostly empty. It was interesting to see how the coruscanti upper-class miraculously could follow orders as soon as a giant murder beast on the loose was involved. He’d keep that in mind.  
Arriving at the Temple, he noticed quite a hectic atmosphere and an increased presence of the Jedi guard, but he guessed they too had thought the Zillobeast to be a mindless monster on a rampage. After all they had killed and eaten the former Chancellor (the reasoning for which he had not fully understood; they seemingly had found something wrong with Palpatine? It was really unclear…). Fox personally thought that the Republic would fare better without Palpatine, but he was just the guy who had filed all the reports, what would he know, right?  
At least the Zillobeast’s plants were accessible on the planet he was on, in contrast to Palpatine’s kriffing fresh seafood.  
Getting inside the Temple was surprisingly difficult, the guards asked a lot of weird questions. A lot of them pertaining Palpatine and Fox’ involvement in the guy’s machinations.  
It was really weird.  
Why were the Jedi suddenly so interested in him? After all they had ignored his corruption of the Senate and the like for quite the extended amount of time. Honestly? Fox was kinda scared to ask. Whatever happened, it would for sure mean more paperwork for him if he knew.  
So, he did the only reasonable thing: ignore it.  
Turns out, bringing Ponds with him had been the best decision he had made that day. After the temple guard initially seemed to refuse them access, implying that they were here on Windu’s orders did wonders (“implying” meaning Fox straight out lied). Paired with a simple nod from Ponds, the way into the temple was free.  
Well, almost free, as for some reason they were required to bring two of the Temple Guard with them. Fox REALLY did not want to know what had happened, but he had the fleeting suspicion that it might have to do with why General Windu just ran off like that.  
Ponds must have come to the same conclusion, because he looked like he was dying to ask the masked guard accompanying them about the scorch marks on the Temple walls.  
Force, Fox really wished they’d get the plants before his murderous glances would cease their effectivity to prevent his brother from asking.  
He really Did Not Want To Know.  
(He probably had the official report already on his datapad, and if not, even better.)  
Right, Plants. Focus on the plants.  
Too bad he had never been to the Jedi Temple before, so he did not know the way to the gardens. Well, at least he hoped it was a garden where the plants the Zillobeast had gushed on about were, and not the private collection of some weird Jedi… Which, now that he thought about, was also very possible. Could he even requisition their private property? Fox furrowed his brows. He really hoped the Jedi were willing to part with their greenery, otherwise…. Sweet Force, it would be the seafood-fiasco all over again, wouldn’t it?  
As he was walking behind their assigned guard, he was so deep in thought that he did not realize that Ponds had slowly fallen back and was now effectively walking besides the rear guard. He also did not realize Ponds was throwing him suspicious glances.  
Although, since he still missed his helmet (along with the rest of his armour. Man, he really was running around in his blacks, huh…), he did in fact hear when Ponds asked “So… what exactly happened here?”  
Fox’ head snapped back around and shot him a positively murderous glare.  
Maybe Wolffe wasn’t his worst brother after all (at least he knew when to keep his mouth shut).


	11. Decisions Were Made. Bad Ones, But Decisions Nonetheless

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> alas, Zero Fucks Fox strikes again.

So, Commander Fox, who reluctantly was sitting in his own office again, had now a plethora of new information. Most of which he never actually wanted.  
Thanks for that, Ponds.  
Apparently, the kriffing Zillobeast had given General Windu cause to suspect that Palpatine of all people had been a Sith Lord. How they had managed that, Fox did not know. Neither did he want to (but as recent events showed, things didn’t always go according Fox’ plans). There now was a full-on investigation going on, which meant he had to revise all of his kriffing paperwork for Palpatine again and send everything suspicious to Internal Affairs and the Investigation Committee. There was a LOT of suspicious material. So much, in fact, that Fox had started to search for the non-suspicious stuff and sort that out. It did go a lot faster that way.  
The worst thing was though, that he couldn’t even rope karking Ponds that traitor into helping him, since Windu had ordered him and the rest of his troops to help localize Palpatine’s goons in the Temple. Because apparently there had been several Jedi (former Jedi now?) who had actually thought that the slimy old grape was worth working for and had secretly changed sides. There had been fights after the Chancellor’s abrupt departure from life and the Jedi Order was now under a lockdown.   
Some people, he’d just never understand…  
So now his brothers were off, doing the stuff they actually-supposedly were made for, Fox started to suspect that he himself might have been a special commission for the sole purpose of doing the paperwork of other people. Because that was all he ever karking did.  
Kriffing, force-damned paperwork.  
Honestly? The thought of looking to the transport of some plants had actually been kind of intriguing, but NO, that was now supervised by Thorn.   
Traitors. All of them.  
Fox’ only source of joy was now the chat section of the GAR comm channel which he was scrolling through while sorting the files on his datapad. There was a lot going on at the moment and he didn’t get everything, but a lot of it was regarding the incidents in the Jedi Temple and the death of Palpatine (there also was a smaller discourse on weapon-grade Rotgut that the 327th had invented and whether letting General Secura share the recipe with her old master was a good idea).  
(REALLY bad idea)  
(EXCEPT for if Vos would decide to bring it to their next Drinking Night…)  
Sometimes he really thought the kaminiise failed their job and just created the biggest gossiping mill the galaxy had ever the misfortune of seeing. If even half of the stuff that he had seen circulating on the GAR comm-channels was true, the Republic had been doomed from the start (and that wasn’t even counting all the incompetent senators he had to deal with on a daily basis).  
Although, in Fox’ experience, one shouldn’t believe everything that his dear brothers came up with.  
For example, people had claimed that Fox had been kidnapped and replaced by a doppelgänger (honestly, if anyone of his brothers wanted his job, all they’d need was ask), that it had been him who had murdered the Chancellor to take his place (why in the galaxy would he want even more responsibility?!? Although the thought of offing Palpatine had always held a certain…. Appeal), that he had suddenly gotten Jedi powers and could talk to plants (what even?) and that the Zillobeast was only a gigantic robot made by the government to tear down buildings on Coruscant to make place for new shopping malls (Some people just had way to much free time).  
And all of these (and a bunch more) had emerged in the last 24 hours.  
The Republic truly was a lost cause.  
Anyways, Fox had paperwork to do (and here he had thought things might change…). Sadly enough he hadn’t been able to find Task or Blink, so he had to work through the mountains of reports all by himself. As he stared down the fifth rewrite of the same financial aid request and the words started to blur together on the screen of his datapad, he started to doubt things.  
Palpatine was dead.  
Palpatine, who had been his direct superior, as well as the more or less highest instance in the whole Republic. And Fox knew for a fact that he hadn’t been assigned to a general for the meantime. So, based on that really obscure document Blink had unearthed earlier…..  
Fox leaned his head back and stared at the ceiling of his office.  
Helping the Jedi was all nice and good, but actually he couldn’t care less about whether or not Palpatine had actually been one of those Sith they were hunting so fervently. The geezer was very, very dead, so he really didn’t seem like a Fox-problem anymore. Plus, he karking knew how kriffing corrupt that grease filled little intestine had been, if the Jedi committee would just listen to what he had to say…. But no, they insisted on a “proper procedure” to ensure that “no false accusations” and “mistakes” would be made.   
Yeah, just ignore what the guy who had written, signed and filed more or less every suspicious document in the whole Republic has to say.  
Honestly, the Jedi could put their “proper procedures” elsewhere.   
After just sitting in his chair for a few moments, he suddenly got up. Now where had he put that cursed piece of flimsi again? Because if the Jedi were going to insist on their proper rules, they would karking get them. After all, Fox had immense experience in creatively interpreting laws for one’s own (or rather one’s Chancellors) personal gain. And since he was in possession of one illustrious piece of flimsi which stated the procedure of succession in this case VERY clearly, why not make use of it. For all that Fox cared, a Chancellor who didn’t even understand the concept of paperwork, was going to be great. Rummaging through the stacks of documents (he still had to return the flimsies back to the Archives at some point…), he was filled with malicious joy. The Jedi could look through those force-damned reports themselves if they liked them so much, his new direct superior had told him to go get plants, so he’d better supervise their arrival and distribution in person. Like the exemplary Commanding Officer he was.  
(That he basically had no clue on how to communicate with his new Chancellor was a not-now problem and would be tackled another time. He’d just have to act as if he could. Luckily Fox was great at acting.)  
Just where was that stupid piece of flimsi? Fox patted the pockets of his kama, but it wasn’t there either. Weird, he thought he had either put it in them or laid it back to the other documents… A frown appeared on his face, perhaps the shinies had taken it? He glanced around the room, checking the floor and the couch, but it really wasn’t there.   
Kark, so now he’d have to find the shinies again. He just hoped that they hadn’t already returned the document to the Archives… The archivists hated his guts as it was (which was totally uncalled for, he’d had no say in which of the documents fell victim to “unfortunate accidents” during their stay in his care, that had all been Palpatine), no need to further aggravate them with turning up personally to get one of their priced ancient relicts after he had already damaged it.  
Absent-mindedly chewing on the inside of his cheek, the Commander looked back over to his own desk, contemplating whether or not he should just give up and return to his paperwork.   
No.  
Kark the Jedi.  
He went through so much (mental) pain to get those damned plants, he’d better get to see them in person. Also, he didn’t trust his brothers not to shoot at their new Chancellor, which would be bad, because then he’d have to arrest them.  
Okay, maybe he would arrest Ponds and not shed one tear.


	12. Any And All Regrets Are to Be Rescheduled For Later

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> idk if anyone saw my Thorn hc on tumblr, but.... well the zillobeast isnt the only one who thinks Coruscant is too barren.

Fox was awed. Never before had he seen so much green. White yes, on Kamino, as well as grey and red, both on Coruscant. But never green. It was so much. It was so alive. He just stood in the side entrance to the Grand Convocation Chamber and stared.   
So. Much. Green.  
And they were STILL bringing more plants!   
Fox watched with amazement as Floaty Pod after Floaty Pod got lowered, filled with dirt and plants and sent back at its original place. Some had trees in them that were taller than himself, others sported a curtain of hanging plants and one single pod, on the lowest floor and on the far end of the whole Chamber contained an ever growing collection of cacti and succulents, which one single, red marked trooper hastily lifted from a big crate. Sweet Stars, he had TOLD his idiot of a brother to get his obsession with those plants under control. Then again, he should probably be thankful that from now on he wouldn’t get any more surprise calls from Maintenance about unused rooms suddenly having been turned in plant nurseries.   
Thorn claimed it wasn’t his fault that they propagated so easily, but Fox had caught him picking off the plant babies and repotting them separately.  
Well, now Thorn could go take that up with the Zillobeast. They would probably even karking bond over their love for plants… What a terrifying mental image.  
Fox sighed and walked over to his fellow Commander, who, at the sight of him, had at least the decency to look embarrassed. “So, Thorn,” Fox started, turning a blind eye to the dirt clinging onto is brothers armour and the tiny round cactus cradled in his hands “Do you have any idea where Task and Blink could be? You know, the shinies who helped me with the paperwork, before the whole Chancellor-murder thing started….”  
Thorn didn’t meet his eyes.  
“Thorn? Where. Are. The. Shinies?”  
His brother fidgeted and stared at the cactus in his hands (Fox swore by the force, if that idiot was thinking about throwing a cactus at him, not even Thire’s heartfelt pleads were going to stop him from jettisoning him into space). Fox crossed his arms and glared. The sooner he got the flimsi piece to make the Zillobeast’s claim to the Chancellor seat public, the sooner he’d get to tell the Jedi to Kriff off.  
“Fox. Brother. You... you aren’t still trying to… make the Zillobeast Chancellor, right?” He had never heard Thorn sound so concerned, not even when he had heard about Maintenance taking all of his cacti. Moreover, Fox didn’t see any reason for it, what was it with everyone and trying to keep him from doing this? Okay, so maybe he COULD see why some held reservations against making a giant beast the Chancellor, he too had some logistical doubts, for example where they would get food for them and how they would hold Visits of State on other planets, not to speak of how they would manage giving speeches as well as communicating with them at all. Maybe they could requisition a Jedi? He’d have to look into that.  
Maybe he could just assign the green troll to Thire. Permanently. He borrowed his brother enough as it was.  
All things he could figure out later.  
“Thorn…”, he started.  
“No. Nononono. You can’t tell me they told the truth. Fox, TELL ME YOU AREN’T ERNESTLY THINKING ABOUT MAKING IT CHANCELLOR!?!!” Thorn was panting now.  
“Them”, Fox corrected him. His brother blinked confusedly: “What?”  
Ignoring him, Fox continued: “Don’t worry, it’s all very legal. I just need a document Task should be in possession of at the moment. So, if you could tell me where to find him, it would speed up things considerably.” He paused, contemplating. “Wait. Actually, I probably could even work it out without that piece of flimsi, but it would take more time…. And I really want a nap. So…” Okay, he was just rambling now, seems like he really needed that sleep. Or more kaf. Though that might not be possible, if Kelly had once again locked him out of the system. He still didn’t know how the medic did it, not even his emergency override codes worked against it.  
Thorn looked like the small cactus in his hands was the only thing keeping him from tackling Fox and dragging him back to the medbay.  
Which would be a shame, because Fox really started to dig all the greenery. Slowly he began to understand the Zillobeast. Speaking of them, where were they? He thought (hoped) they would have come back now, as the annual budget for Beast Rampage Coverance was only so big, and he was pretty sure that no insurance would be ready to pay for the property that had been destroyed by them.   
Well, if worst came to worst, he’d have to ask the guys from Cyber Sec to reroute one or two of Palpatine’s bribery funds into the budget… They were nice people; Fox just found the haunted look in their eyes a little too familiar (Another reason why he always wore his helmet, you never knew when you came across a mirror).  
“You cannot be serious. Fox, this thing has KILLED Palpatine” Thorn tried again, but Fox didn’t really listen. “Oh, comon, as if you never had thoughts of offing the wrinkly old grape. So now they did. And if he really was a karking Sith, even better”, he murmured.   
His brother gaped at him.  
“What? He’s dead now, so what can he do? Haunt me? I don’t think so. Even if, what’s the worst thing he could do? Assign me more paperwork from the netherworld??” At least he hoped so. Maybe he could ask whichever Jedi he’d grab to translate to the Zillobeast…  
“FOX!” The other Commander looked pained, carefully rearranged the cactus so he could hold it in only one hand and massaged his eyebrows with the other, leaving smudges of dirt all over his face. “Fine… I’ll bring you to them, they are helping with the soil acquisition. But!”, he paused and finally looked Fox straight in the eye ”I want you to finally approve of the project outline I submitted to you a few months ago.”  
Oh.  
Fox should have anticipated that any request to Thorn would entail a deal for the approval of said brother’s pet project.  
He sighed.  
“I’ll see what I can do.”  
Crossing his arms (although carefully because of the cactus), Thorn tilted his head a bit and waited. For a few moments the two Commanders were locked in a silent staredown. Then Fox groaned.  
“OKAY! You get your damn Couruscant Reforestation Project. Now get me to those karking Shinies!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fox made a deal with the Devil, Rip to him.


	13. The Cain Instinct

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> did I do this forthe exact purpose of using "yeet" in my Very Professional fic?
> 
> absolutely.

So, great news; The Zillobeast was back.  
On a less positive note though, people were screaming again.  
Well, actually, it was only one guy. Probably a shiny. So, Fox did the only reasonable thing; he snatched the cactus out of Thorns hand and, with the precision of someone well trained in hitting garbage cans with empty kaf cups, he yeeted it across the room, hitting the guy square in the face. Or, you know, the helmet. With a surprised yelp the shiny stumbled backwards and fell to the floor.  
Whatever.  
The operation was a success because the screaming stopped. Although only for a few seconds, because then Thorn awakened out of his momentary shock and wailed like a wounded animal.   
“YOU MONSTER!” He screamed at Fox, hurrying to where the now slightly dented cactus lay, bits of dirt strewn around it. Kneeling down, he gingerly cradled it in his hands. After thoroughly inspecting it (and completely ignoring the shiny who seemed torn between being scared shitless because of the Zillobeast that was currently climbing through the hole in the ceiling, and being completely confused by why the Kriff Commander Thorn was talking soothingly to a cactus), he threw a positively murderous glare to Fox, who just shrugged. Thorn narrowed his eyes, then abruptly turned his back to him and flopped to the ground.  
Great, now his brother was sulking because of a kriffing plant.  
Fox threw a suffering glance towards the Zillobeast, who still was kind of hanging from the ceiling… admiring the greenery? There were no unwanted monster thoughts in the back of his mind, so he couldn’t say with certainty. But they better be appreciating it, after all the work he had to do to get the plants.  
“Thorn, it’s only a cactus. You literally have hundreds of them!” Fox sighed, “Now stop sulking and help me get to Task and Blink.”  
But, alas, Thorn kept ignoring him. Sweet Force, why were all of his brothers so hecking weird? Cody was the most normal one, Fox included, and the man PUNCHED battle droids! How in all Corellian Hells had Nala Se looked at them and thought “Ah, yes, a fine batch of Clones, indeed.”??  
“Thorn.”, he said with emphasis. Still no reaction. He closed the distance to where his brother still sat sulkily, with his back turned. The shiny next to Thorn looked at him and Fox just knew he was looking at him weirdly. Somehow people had lost all their respect (and fear) for him in the last 24 hours, which decidedly was not a development he welcomed. He should have never left his helmet in the office back when he had first stumbled upon the Zillobeast, it made people realize he was still human (he didn’t even think about the episode where he screamed at the Zillobeast on the Plaza, only in his blacks and still half delirious after being hypoed for 14 hours). Thorn, sensing that he now hovered behind him, turned around, still moping.  
“I hate you, you know that, right? I want you to know that.”   
Wordlessly Fox offered his hand to help his fellow Commander up. For a few seconds the other hesitated, but ultimately accepted the offer and pulled himself up. “Fine, fine, ill get you to them. BUT.” He continued before Fox could relax.   
Oh no, what would come now?  
“I’ll get to put some plants into YOUR office as well. And you won’t remove them.”  
Fox took a step back; hands raised defensively and shook his head.  
“No. BIG No. Thorn, I already told you I neither have time nor space for your kriffing cacti.” He gestured towards the Zillobeast (what a sight; The mighty Zillobeast trying to bury their head in one of the plant pods…) and went on: “Give the plants to someone who actually cares. Hells, you two can probably karking bond over them.”  
His brother opened his mouth, looking like he wanted to protest, but then furrowed is brows and also looked over to where the Zillobeast still seemed to positively inhale the plants. He seemed to contemplate something. Oh oh, Fox had the fleeting suspicion that he was about to regret several of his life choices in the near future.  
“Maybe you are right.” Thorn said thoughtfully, still scrutinizing the monster. Then he abruptly turned around, the biggest and fakest smile Fox had seen in… about four days plastered over his face. Grasping his shoulder, he started to drag him to the elevators.  
What?  
He must have said that aloud, because Thorn smiled benevolently at him and, whilst still shooing him forwards, remarked sweetly: “Now, now. You wanted to appoint a new Chancellor? Better get going then. We want that paperwork to be done today, right?”   
Fox’ thoughts were racing. Had he broken Thorn? Maybe he shouldn’t have thrown that cactus? No, they were made to resist a great amount of stress, loosing one plant to the helmet of a brother wouldn’t do that to him. At least he hoped so, not only for himself, but also for Nala Se’s statistics. Wait, no. Kark her. But still, what had caused Thorn to do this complete 180? He almost radiated glee, it made Fox really uncomfortable about being confined in the same small space as his brother. Maybe the Zillobeast had done their weird mind talking thingy to him. But still, just what would have caused Thorn to be so enthusiastic about making them Chancellor? Perhaps they already conspired together to grow a jungle or something here on Coruscant…  
He should have never caved in to Thorn’s request.  
Big mistake.  
The elevator door slid open and Thorn shot him another exited look.  
“Come on, we gotta go to the Jedi Temple again. I already ordered a transport.”  
Fox did a double take.   
“What? Why are they at the kriffing Temple? They aren’t Pond’s men, they are Senate Guard!”  
Thorn at least had the decency to look uncomfortable at his exclamation. “Yeah… you see, after all that happened, and all the rumours about you, Thire and I thought it was best to give them… a break from the Senate building.”  
“You mean from me.” Fox deadpans. His brother squirmed a little.  
“Don’t blame me! It was Thire’s idea. And Ponds’…” Okay, ponds was definitely going to spend some time in detention. Fox would find a way, no doubt.  
His brother continued to dig his grave: “You see, you were really weird. And I mean REALLY weird; You disappeared for more than half a day, turned up and talked about stealing the Jedi’s plants and making a monster Chancellor… But don’t worry, “And he patted him on the shoulder, “I get the last part now. Great idea.”  
Fox wasn’t so sure of that anymore, but he bit his tongue and thought happy thoughts. Like setting Porgs on fire. Or his paperwork. Or Orn Free Taa.  
A restraining order against Skywalker.   
Ponds in a cell.  
A good nap.  
A good nap between those new plants.  
Yes, that sounded nice.


	14. Ah, Siblings...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hm, maybe I should add a "slice of life" tag? It does seem to veer into that direction kinda? idk...
> 
> Anyways, have some Brotherly Bonding Time TM

The trip to the Jedi Temple took longer than expected, because several skylanes had been blocked for maintenance work on buildings the Zillobeast had damaged on their little Coruscant excursion. For one, Fox was very proud that the repair work had been started so quickly, but on the other hand it also meant that he had to listen to Thorn blabbering on about his plants for longer than usual.  
He looked out of the window, scrutinizing the landscape of the city. They might have to change some of the city planning if the Zillobeast was to reside on Coruscant for an extended period of time. That or simply move the Senate to another planet…  
Well, first they would have to legalize the Zillobeast’s claim to Chancellorship.  
A kick to his shin startled Fox from his silent plotting.   
Grumbling, he tilted his head and looked over to Thorn, who sat there with his arms crossed. “What?”  
His brother sighed. “As expected, you ignored me. Anyways, as I was saying before; It might be best if I go get the …. What was it again you wanted from Task and Blink? Some document? In any case, might be best if I go alone.” Fox furrowed his brows, nodding. “Yeah, its an old piece of flimsi… But tell me again; why shouldn’t I accompany you? The shinies are under my command after all.”, he paused for a moment and upon seeing that familiar guilty look reappear on Thorns face, he groaned.  
“Kark, Thorn, just what in all the Corellian Hells did you tell my men?! You know that’s slander of an Government Official, right?”  
“Hey, not fair”, came a half hearted protest from the other Commander, “ I don’t even know the whole story, Thire and Ponds looked after them, I only heard of it when they warned me to look out for you and that you might seem…. A little off. And I mean, back at the entrance hall of the Senate, you DID seem …. Ah, how to put this nicely…”, Thorn made a grimace.  
Hm, entrance hall, entrance hall… what had he said there? It all was kinda woozy. This was why he never slept. Once you start, you have to do it regularly, or this stuff happens.   
Fox leaned back in his seat. “Listen, I just had woken up from the longest continuous bout of unconsciousness I had since I was decanted and there was a gigantic murder beast ranting on about getting plants in my head. So, yeah, I’ll be frank with you, I have no clue what I said or did there…”  
Thorn stared at him.  
Fox felt himself being judged. He did not like it.  
Narrowing hi eyes, he warned his brother: “If any part of this conversation ever reaches Kelly’s ears, your plants wont be the only thing that’s gonna be in danger.”  
His brother looked scandalized.  
“You cant do that! I put them all into the Convocation Chamber, they won’t disturb anyone from now on!” Oh, so the little hypocrite had KNOWN that his ever changing plant rooms were not at all beneficial towards an amicable relationship with maintenance. Well, well, well, that certainly was interesting to hear…  
“I’ll tell Supi you said Jiljoo is hot.”  
Thorn almost dropped his stupid dented cactus at that remark. Then he shot Fox the most scared look he had ever seen (and that included the whole Zillobeast debacle AS WELL as the one time Fox had almost dumped a whole tray of carefully propagated succulents into a flaming garbage can).  
“What the kriff fox? You know that woman would kill ANYONE who even looks weirdly at Jiljoo! Plus, I never even said that, you absolute karking bastard, don’t go off sprouting lies that will get people mutilated in dark alleyways…. Really, What. The. Kriff.” Well, it was actually true, there had been… several instances of very… delicate situations involving the green Twi’lek aide, but Fox had up to this day always managed to handle them discreetly. Not that he didn’t sympathise with her, Jiljoo really was too pure for her own good. More than once they had conspired to simply put her in guard armour, because the clothes Orn Free Taa chose for them to wear were simply terrible, plus, it would offer more protection from the porgs. But alas, apparently that was “not acceptable”.   
Hm, another thing to add to the list of Things to Change Under Chancellor Zillobeast’s Rule. The Twi’lek aides should be allowed to wear armour and carry weapons. The Nubian handmaidens sure did. Fox never got an official confirmation, but there were silent agreements between them and the Guard.   
He lifted his hands in a pacifying gesture. “Don’t worry, I won’t. Ponds would do that kicked-puppy-face of his again and I can’t stand that. But still, think of this as a reminder not to do anything stupid. And yes, you can relay that to Thire as well.” His brother snorted at the last remark.  
“What?”  
Looking kind of torn, the other Commander gnawed his lip.   
“W h a t?”, Fox asked again, leaning forward. “What aren’t you telling me?”  
Thorn hesitated for a moment, before caving in. “Hmmm, do you…. Remember Drinking Night two months ago? You know, the one after that disastrous vote on the War Victims Relief Fund?”  
Nodding he gestured for him to continue.   
“Ah, well then, do you also remember that weird glowing liquor one of the handmaidens… uh might have been Sabé? Or another one? Hells, they really all look the same, do you think they could be clones too? Naboo certainly has enough money to pay the Kaminiise…”  
“Thorn, do not change the subject.”  
Of course Fox remembered that stuff. He also was fairly certain that it had not in fact been Sabé who had brought that cursed liquid, or any other of the handmaidens for that matter, but the Senator herself. But still, he was unsure where Thorn was going with this.  
Thorn grimaced. “Can’t fault me for trying. You really don’t wanna know…”  
Raising an eyebrow, Fox sent him a challenging stare.  
“Okay, okay, your loss. I tried to warn you. Do you…also remember who showed up later that night? I mean, you were kinda drunk already at that point…” Fox? Blank stare must have told him everything he needed to know, so he continued, shifting uncomfortably in his seat: “Soo… yeah, General Vos showed up, also pretty drunk. And with that I mean positively hammered. He was like, worse than I’ve ever seen before… And you too. Force, I really wonder what that nubian stuff was, we really need to avoid that in the future.”  
“Get. To. The. Point.” Fox was getting equally nervous and impatient.  
“Hnnnnnnnnngg… Soooo… thiremighthaveavideoofyoucomfortingasobbinggeneralvosonyourlap.”  
“W H A T?”  
No. Fox refused to believe he ever lost control over himself that badly. That simply couldn’t have happened. Nope. Not possible. (But what if it was true? Oh Hells, maybe the Zillobeast would be up for a small snack? He really might have to dispose one or two corpses. Fratricide wasn’t nice, but Thire really was challenging fate lately.) (A tiny part of Fox was kind of proud of Thire, because that WAS 1A blackmail material, but sadly it was against himself, so it was unacceptable.)  
He opened his mouth, wanting more information, but in that moment Thorn sprang up from his seat and laughed hysterically.   
“OH, WOULD YOU LOOK AT THIS. HERE WE ARE, SORRY I CANT TELL YOU MORE, NEED TO GET THOSE DOCUMENTS, AMIRIGHT?!”  
And with those words he slammed the door of the cab open and stormed off to the Temple, leaving Fox behind.  
That bastard.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fox is having ✨ r e g r e t s ✨


	15. Fight, Flight, Freeze

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wah, i realized that it's been pretty long since the last update.  
> i just never found the time to write😅

Fox angrily stalked through the temple’s hallways, reassuring himself once again that, no, that weirdly familiar pillar over there was only weirdly familiar because all the pillars here looked the same, and not because he had walked past it three times already in the last twenty minutes.  
And he certainly was not lost.  
No.  
But, by All That Was Good And Nice, where the KARK had Thorn run off to?  
And WHY did the Jedi have to build their weird ass temple like a complete kriffing maze? Not that he was lost or anything, it was just that there were definitely a lot of questionable architectural choices. Fox did not appreciate the questionable architectural choices. Which, still, had nothing to do with him being lost or anything. Also, what was it with jedi and the colour brown? (though, it was still better than that horrible all-red theme Palpatine had going on, so he wasn’t going to judge it too harshly…)   
Logically speaking, since Thorn had said the shinies were sent to help Ponds and Ponds had been ordered to keep the rogue Jedi-not-Jedi in check, following the sear traces and damaged walls should theoretically lead him towards his brothers (or towards trigger happy jedi, but that was a problem he’d face in the off case it would actually happen). But alas, he yet had to see even ONE other member of the GAR, yes, there had been some of the Jedi Guards at the entrance and at certain corners he felt weirdly watched, but none of his brothers in sight. Which was suspicious, since it had been quite a lot of men who had been sent to help secure the Temple. If he didn’t know better he’d say the rumours Thire and Ponds had started were making people evade him, but that couldn’t be.  
Probably.  
Well, even the Jedi Temple was only so big, so even if they were hiding he’d find them eventually. But this whole situation really made him once again consider investing in trackers he could attach to his brothers. It really seemed worth it, so maybe he actually should start his list of “Things To Do After We Made The Zillobeast Chancellor” with “assign myself a salary”.   
Stopping at yet another (familiar) crossroad Fox squinted. He was by no way an expert, but he was VERY sure he had come through the same place a few minutes earlier. Maybe even twice. Okay no, he definitely had come through here at least twice, since could remember taking both possible ways that this crossroad forked into (there was this funnily shaped burn mark on one corner, he remembered that one).  
Fox turned around, staring down the hallway he had just come through.  
What in all the Corellian Hells was going on?  
Admittedly, he was not the best at that direction stuff, but even he wouldn’t walk the same path thrice without realizing.  
Probably.  
(That one time in Kamino didn’t count because the Kaminiise really did their best to let EVERYTHING look the same. The Jedi Temple hallways were positively diverse compared to them.)  
Fox took a few steps into the direction he had come from, then stopped again.   
He had just realized that he had no idea how to get back to the entrance. If he really had been for some Force forsaken reason walking in circles for the last half an hour, where did it start? Karking Force, why couldn’t he remember?? Fox took off his helmet and rubbed his temples, wrecking his brain.  
Nothing.  
Something was definitely weird here. He wasn’t THAT tired, right? No, this was something else.  
Fox blankly stared down the hallway.  
“What the Kriff…” He murmured, before slipping his helmet back on.   
Deciding that sitting around and waiting wasn’t going to get him anywhere soon, he started walking again, eyeing the walls and pillars he passed suspiciously. There had to be some indication as to where the kriffing Hells he had come from.  
Meandering through brown hallways he searched for the exit, constantly trying to keep an eye out for any path he might have missed. Sometimes he took one path, only to realize he had gone there before, turned around and took another route, but that one he also knew. Checking the time on his Wristcomm, he realized that he had only been walking for about 40 minutes, but to him it seemed like hours. There had been a moment where he thought about coming Thorn to come and get him, but after knowing that Thire already was in possession of that unspeakable video of him, he really couldn’t afford to give anyone any more blackmail material. So, he continued his path.  
Just as he peered down another pillar riddled hall, something collided with the back of his legs.  
Commander Fox of the Coruscant Guard certainly did not shriek.  
But he did fold like a lawnchair.  
Scrambling for his blaster he rolled around to see what in the karking Force had hit him hard enough to fell him like this.  
But all of his thoughts and actions came to a screeching halt when he saw what had been the cause of his sudden and unexpected meeting with the Temple floor. Or rather, who.  
Fox was blue-screening.  
Why was there a small child suddenly clinging to his legs?! Moreover, a child with the most hideously coloured hair he had ever seen. Neon blue and neon purple, it looked like toxic waste. After what had been almost an hour of monotonous brown walls and floors and pillars that eye-gauging colour-combination sent Fox straight into his fight or flight response. Which… was not ideal, as he probably shouldn’t fight a child and since he simply could not find the exit the flight was also greatly impaired.  
Which lead to Fox experiencing the third, less known panic response; freeze.  
(Painting a rather unflattering picture of Fox, as he was now frozen whilst still pointing a blaster onto a child….)  
The tiny monstrosity didn’t seem to care and scrutinized him for a few moments, only to strengthen the death grip on his shins and break the biggest, derpiest grin Fox had ever had the misfortune of witnessing.  
Fox tried to shake the neon coloured sprout off, but to no avail. That gremlin had no business having such a strong grip, what the kriff?  
“Let go.”  
The toxic waste abomination just stared at him with eyes round from excitement. Then, as if suddenly shy, it burrowed its head between the Commander’s knees.  
“What in…. Let me go!” Fox, finally regaining the ability to control his body again, tried to tear the child off his legs. With a loud sound of protest it grabbed his armour even tighter, even locking its own legs around his. Loudly cursing now, he tried to peel the little pest off, only succeeding after a great amount of struggle.  
Panting, he held the wiggling neon menace at arm’s length.   
Oh great, judging from the clothes he had found himself a baby jetii.   
Wait, why was this one not hiding? He was pretty sure that Ponds had mentioned that the jedi children had been brought somewhere to hide them away.  
“You aren’t supposed to be here.” He told the child sternly.  
The baby Jedi pouted.


	16. The Neon Menace

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> idk i tried to channel my inner eight year old, but heavens know if i succeeded.
> 
> i dont get children, why did i add one??

“So, where exactly are we going?”  
Well, they weren’t actually “going”, it was more like “crawling” at the moment. After the initial confusion the baby jedi (who might be called “Nurp”, though that could also just have been a weird sound he made) had excitedly blabbered something about the force and proceeded to drag Fox after him into a side hall where there had been an open vent. Fox had had a minor crisis over how in the Galaxy he had missed that side hall several times, but then the radioactive child had already disappeared into the vents. Figuring the child seemed to know the Temple layout better than him, he decided to reschedule his crisis for later and follow the runaway neon gremlin.   
So, here he was, crawling through the Jedi Temple vents (which were surprisingly big?) and trying to strike up a conversation with an eight year old.  
“Listen, I appreciate your consideration, but I really have places to be and was on my way there. So, if y…” But he was abruptly cut off by an eye-gauging neon violet bush of hair that slapped him in the face as the boy suddenly sat up and violently shook his head. Spluttering, Fox tried to get some stay hairs out of his mouth, only to suddenly be face-to-face with the tiny menace’s bright green visage.  
“No.”, the child looked at him seriously, brows scrunched.  
“You walked in the circle. It’s a ‘fence mechanism.”  
“A what?” Fox was confused. What had fencing to do with him walking in circles?  
The child, who by the way was still way too close for Fox’ liking, made an exasperated gesture. “You know, a ‘fence mechanism; a… a trap. It’s from the Temple, makes you walk circles.” The child’s head bobbed up and down as he nodded, as if agreeing with himself.   
Fox closed his eyes.  
Oh, Thorn was SO going to regret this. The di’kut had known for sure, had just let him walk right into that jedi-temple-mind-fuckery trap. All of his brothers were going to pay. Hm, yeah, Stone was his new favourite brother. The best thing about this; Stone couldn’t possibly conspire against him, since he was stationed at the other side of the planet.  
Fox was startled out of his musings by the feeling of his helmet being unceremoniously pulled off his head. “Hey! Sto-“ A small hand patted his now exposed forehead. The daring little thief stared at him. “No. Anger is bad. You can’t be angry, it makes you fall!” The little menace now hugged his poor helmet. “Master Yoda says you have to release your anger.”   
“Oh, I am releasing it all right. By kicking my brothers into the next sun.” He murmured.   
“Woah, you have brothers??” The neon menace’s eyes were sparkling. “No one in the crèche has brothers. Or sisters. I’ve always wanted one! Or two! Or more!” The child almost vibrated from excitement, which, honestly, Fox didn’t understand. Brothers were a nuisance, they always meddled and expected him to “sleep more” , “tune down on the caf” or “take some time off”. As if any one of them could cope with all the paperwork he had to deal with. The Republic would crumble if he gave his workload to someone like Thorn. Thire…. MAYBE Thire would be competent enough, but Fox didn’t trust him anymore. Ponds was a lost case. Always had been. Stone was on the other side of the planet.  
But soon that wouldn’t be a problem anymore. If the Republic had a Chancellor who didn’t even understand the concept of written language (at least Fox hoped so), his workload would be GREATLY reduced. Also, the jedi really could do their additional paperwork them-karking-selves, Fox had enough other stuff to do.  
He sighed. “Brothers are a nuisance. People in general are.”, and after a moment of consideration Fox added, more to himself: “Animals are okay… as long as they stay out of my mind.”  
This let the child, who was almost sitting on Fox (not cool), perk up.  
“Oh right! The others said you can talk to animals!” He let Fox’ helmet roll out of his embrace and grabbed the Commander’s arm instead, tugging at it. “Me too!” The little menace leaned closer again, whispering conspirationally. ”I think this is why the Force wanted me to get you. You are like me!”  
Yeah, Fox really didn’t think so.  
Trying to get the overly enthusiastic baby Jedi off him, he grumbled. “If I could speak with animals I wouldn’t be here right now. That kar… the beast is the one communicating with me, I WISH I could talk back.” He made a displeased sound as the child wiggled himself between his arms after Fox’ fruitless endeavours to remove him from his arm. The little kriffer was as slippery as a nubian eel. “Hey get off me.” He tried again, as he once again got a mouthful of neon coloured hair. With a muffled sound of protest the boy shook his head again, face against Fox’ breastplate.  
“No”, he heard the muffled voice again, “The others said you talked to a gigantic beast and stopped it from destroying aaaalll of Coruscant and, and you control all the porgs in the Senate! And you are called Fox and that is also an animal and the Force told me to find you and now you’re here and all feels happy…”  
Fox was lost.  
What in all the Hells? Yes, he had screamed at the Zillobeast but they had returned to the Senate on their own terms? He couldn’t talk to them. And what was that nonsense about the karking porgs?? If he WERE able to control them, he’d long have sent them one after another into the trash incinerator, filmed it and played it on repeat at drinking night. Moreover what in the Galaxy had his name and the karking Force to do with this?  
Slowly, he began to doubt his earlier decision to follow a child jedi into unfamiliar vents. Especially since said child now lightly snored in his arm.  
Wait what?!  
Fox whipped his head around to stare at the neon coloured menace who had attached himself to his torso.   
He hadn’t misheard; the child had fallen asleep.  
The sheer AUDACITY of this gremlin stunned him. How even…? That couldn’t be comfortable, right? He lightly poked the boy’s cheek. Nothing. Somewhere he had heard that waking small children made them cranky, and cranky children cried a lot. At least that’s what he had heard. Somewhere. And based on the current circumstances in the Temple, he would prefer it not to be found in the company of a screaming child.   
Sweet Force, he had absolutely zero experience with children! And being stuck somewhere in the maze that were the Jedi Temple vents did not help.  
Letting out a deep sigh, Fox shouldered the sleeping bundle of trouble, slipped his helmet back on and began to move farther into the vents. Hopefully there would be an exit soon.  
Preferably not in a shower room though.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll post a pic of Nurp on my Tumblr, if anyone is interested in seeing the toxic waste gremlin (^-^)


	17. Whatcha got there?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> well, uni has started again, but ill try not to update too infrequently.

“Fox.”  
“Mmh?” He didn’t look up from his datapad; he had received several reports from Ponds, as well as several angry/concerned messages from Stone, who only just now had received the Very Sad News about the late Chancellor. Something about having been stuck in the lower levels and or sewers without comm reception.  
Whatever.  
Also, that di’kut Thorn still hadn’t replied to his messages. Neither had Thire. What in all the Corellian Hells could take them this damn long?! Enough time had passed already for Fox and his lightly snoring baggage to have returned to the Senate Building and be back in his office. Angrily he started typing yet another message to these two.  
“Fox!”  
“What?” He snapped at Kelly, who stared at him incredulously. “Can’t you see I am busy?”  
“Care to explain why there is a karking CHILD attached to you???”  
“Ah. That.”  
“Yes, THAT.”  
Fox glanced shortly to the neon garbage child that still was attached to his side. He didn’t want to admit it, but he was rather impressed with the tiny gremlin’s ability to sleep through all of Fox trying to find a way out of the Jedi Temple’s vents. Especially since it had been… difficult, manoeuvring through there with the additional burden without hitting walls or floor too badly. Well, at least the truly terrifying amount of hair had worked as some measure of protection…  
“He attached himself to me and I couldn’t just leave him in the vents?” Fox offered.  
That, and after he had finally somehow exited the Temple on one of the lower levels (how deep down did that karking thing go???), he didn’t have the emotional fortitude to go back anymore. Moreover, what even was he supposed to say if he turned up at the Jedi’s doorstep with one of their children thrown over his shoulder like a wet towel? “Hi, yes, sorry to disturb, I think I found something of yours?” Yeah, not suspicious at all. So, Fox figured, if someone was going to miss the little menace, they’d come search for him. In the meantime he was going to figure out if this amount of sleep was normal, or if he had to start panicking over an unconscious jedi child. Sadly, that had meant contacting Kelly, who now hovered in the door to his office. Hopefully the man could tell him what was going on with the child without any extensive tests.  
Which.... he was not sure if he had time for that in his schedule.  
“Well he attached himself to me and then fell asleep. Is this normal?” Fox looked at Kelly inquiringly.  
The medic just continued to stare at him. “What vents?” He finally asked after a long time of silence.  
“Jedi Temple. Thorn abandoned me.”  
You could see the gears turn in Kelly’s mind. He looked at Fox, then out of the office’s window where the Temple was partially visible from, then back to Fox and finally his gaze dropped to the boy attached to his side like one of those Mon Cala octopi. For a full minute, he stared at the child, taking in his attire and what Fox had just told him. Then the medic’s eyes snapped back up to meet Fox’.  
And with great care and seemingly a lot of repressed agitation, he carefully pressed out. “You. Stole. A. Jedi. Youngling?”  
“I wouldn’t call it stealing. He just didn’t let go.” Fox shrugged. “And I have other things to do instead of trying to find that kriffing idiot Thorn in that maze they call the Jedi Temple. And before you say something,” he interrupted Kelly, who had opened his mouth to protest. “ I already sent a message to Ponds, the Jedi can come their gremlin any time they want.”  
Letting out a pained sound, the medic rubbed his forehead. Then, with a deep exhale, he crossed the room to come closer to Fox. He shortly looked at the child on Fox’ side, supported by one of the Commander’s arms, then just shrugged and explained that the child seemed fine (also, it seemed that that hair colour was not potentially harmful to his health, and very normal for the child’s race. A thought that Fox found mildly terrifying).  
“Though admittedly, I am not very familiar with either Theelin or Jedi children, so I am slightly guessing. But he doesn’t seem to have a fever or anything else wrong with him… well, except being at the wrong karking place.”  
If stares were able to kill, well, then the Guard would be down one Commander.  
“Well, that’s perfect then” Fox said with false enthusiasm. “Now then, I’ll no longer prevent you from doing your important medic things.” And he grabbed Kelly by the shoulder, turning him around and pushing him towards the exit.  
The sooner the medic left, the lower became the risk that he’d try to inspect Fox as well.  
So, out he went.  
After Kelly had been unceremoniously shoved out into the hallway by him, Fox leaned his right shoulder against the closed door, rearranging the weight of the sleeping child a bit.  
Now, if only he could get information what Thorn and Thire were up to.  
Ponds knew something, but he wasn’t answering his comm.  
Also, his left arm slowly but surely was getting tired from constantly holding the little kriffer. Fox momentarily halted his typing as a realisation hit him; he no longer was within earshot of any potentially over-enthusiastic Jedi Guardians. Moreover his office was sound proofed.So, theoretically… He glanced suspiciously down at the neon coloured bush of hair, the only thing visible from his point of view. Yeah, waking the gremlin here was decidedly less dangerous than doing so in the Temple’s vents. If worst came to worst, he could just shut the child into his office.  
After laying the datapad back onto his desktop, he tried to peel the child from him. This time with more determination than before. Still, the boy truly had an iron grasp (Fox suspected some force-osik playing into that).  
“Hey.” He said loudly, poking a green cheek. “Wake up you little gremlin.”  
No reaction.  
For a moment he contemplated if taking off his armour was a valid option to loosen the Boy’s grasp, but he wouldn’t be able to. He really started to suspect the little menace had strategically placed himself this way.  
“Hey, you little menace, that was enough nap time. Get up.”  
Resuming the poking, he grumbled angrily. “Come on, I’ve got things to do and I cant even sit down with you like this.” (Truly, was this a normal level of sleep for a child? Fox was by no means an expert, but this seemed excessive…)  
He continued the slight rattling of the child, until, after almost giving up on it, the boy finally gave a sound from him and shifted slightly in Fox’ grasp.  
“Oh? Are you waking up now? Please be waking up.”  
And indeed, through a miracle of medium magnitude, the gremlin was slowly waking up again. Fox was almost embarrassed at the amount of relief that caused in him (he later insisted that that was mainly because it would have been very impractical to carry the child around for any longer).  
Suddenly the child’s grip loosened and Fox almost dropped him. Cursing slightly he set him down on the couch. “Hey, don’t do that without warning, What would have happened if I had something in my hands? I would have dropped you.” He lightly scolded the yawning boy. Said child blinked dazedly, then looked up to him with a bright grin. “Hi!” Then, after taking in the unfamiliar surrounding he grabbed Fox’ arm. “Where are we?” But before Fox could answer, the radioactive gremlin had swiftly slipped down from the couch and was now tugging at his vembraces.  
“We gotta go to the plant room!”  
“What?” Fox was confused.  
Then he realized.  
Oh no.  
Kriffing force-sensitives and their stupid mind-talking abilities.


	18. There Is A CHILD On Your ZILLOBEAST

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aaaaaa  
> i didn't even realize how much time had passed since the last chapter!!  
> i'll try not to do that from now on.

People were staring.  
People were staring at Fox and he couldn’t even fault them for it.  
Gritting his teeth and pointedly ignoring the questioning stares of the guardsmen stationed in the hallway, he glanced at the joyfully bobbing, neon coloured puffs of hair in front of him. Ever since they had left his office, the child had. Not. Stopped. Rambling.  
So far Fox had had the pleasure of being subjected to 1) a very brief excurse about the five subspecies of swamp-dwelling swash-jumpers, commonly found on Naboo, 2) an equally short, and very wrong explanation of the Coruscant Tax System, 3) at least a dozen randomly placed questions about the Porgs, after Fox had made the mistake of mentioning them offhandedly after he’d been asked if he liked animals. Moreover, he now had an abundance of personal information of the gremlin, such as his full name (he hadn’t heard wrongly in the vents, the child really was named Nurp), his favourite kind of soup (because apparently, soup was the best kind of food?), the names, appearance and basic personalities of his best friends and the gremlin’s personal opinion about the appeal of the different Jedi teacher’s classes.  
All in all, a lot of unnecessary knowledge, that Fox could have gladly done without, but fit the general theme of this week so far. People just loved to tell him stuff he Did Not Want To Know, Thank You And Goodbye.  
Had the route to the Grand Convocation Chamber always been this long?  
Fox couldn’t remember. Then again, he couldn’t remember a lot of things (Kelly insisted this was because of his lack of sleep, but Fox didn’t trust the man. Had to be something else). He just always had had his brain filled with deadlines for karking reports and documents, so things like directions and routes simply weren’t important. And Thorn and Thire could kindly shut up about this being an “excuse” for his so called “terrible sense of direction”.  
He knew how to get to the important parts of the Senate Building, and if he sometimes took the scenic route, that was because he wanted so. No other reason.  
(And he definitely wasn’t jealous of the little gremlin’s mysterious magic ability to find his way through the hallways seemingly without effort, even though he had never been there before.)  
After a few more minutes which, in Fox’ opinion, stretched far longer than they had any right to, they finally arrived at the elevators to the Senate Chamber. The child was positively vibrating and still going strong, rambling on about how he loved animals so much and how none of his crèche mates would believe him that he had met Fox (he seemed to have somehow become a sort of almost mystical figure amongst the baby Jedi…).  
The inside of the elevator smelled like earth and dirt and ripped off plant leaves were scattered on the floor. Sweet Force, Maintenance would absolutely hate him. Maybe there was a chance that he could shove off responsibility for this to Thorn? He sure hoped so.  
Suddenly, a small hand tugged at his vembrace, demanding attention.  
“They are there! I can feel them, they are happy!” Eyes as big as a thermal detonator, the gremlin looked up to him as if he expected some sign of agreement from him. Fox sighed. “Sure they are, if you say so…” Well, the Zillobeast better be happy.  
Now that he thought about it, the men should have finished bringing in the Jedi Temple’s vegetation by now. It seemed that at least one thing this week was going according to the plans. Or at least there had no one thought any possible complications important enough to bother him with, which was also fine. Now if only they had already coordinated the clean up team, that would be great. Maybe if he could hang around the Zillobeast for long enough, he wouldn’t have to interact with Maintenance after all…  
Fox had to admit, having a giant murder beast hanging around was at least very convenient for moron-deterrence.  
Maybe he should think about moving his office into the Grand Convocation Chamber?  
His musings were interrupted by the slight pinging sound that marked the arrival at the lowest floor of the Chamber and the doors opened. The gremlin, who had previously been attached to the side of his leg, immediately barrelled through the door, not even leaving a tiny sliver of a chance for Fox to grab him.  
There were some panicked shouts, as the not very inconspicuous child made a beeline for the Zillobeast that was hanging around on the far end of the Chamber, seemingly snoozing amongst the newly acquired plants. One brave soul valiantly tried to catch Nurp, but to no avail.  
Fox watched and let out a deep sigh. Hopefully the Jedi would come to collect their wayward menace soon, otherwise he’d have to explain to Kelly why several members of the Guard suddenly suffered from gremlin-induced heart attacks…  
One guy, Headlock, saw Fox exiting the elevator after the child and gestured panicking towards Nurp, who now was… trying to scale the Zillobeast’s head.  
“SIR, that-! What-“ But Fox cut him off with a wink of his hand. “Oh don’t worry, he’s probably telling them already all about the batch of baby carrots he and his friends planted in the flower pots.” And without even acknowledging his brother’s squeaked “Ba-Baby carrots?...”, he lifted his hand to signal the rest of the present Guard to stand down too. Furrowing his brow, he then stared at a familiar neon-coloured fleck that now was slowly but steadily scaling the armour-like hide of the Zillobeast. Several of his men stood at a safe distance, skittish and hands placed on their weapons, not even paying any attention to him.  
Fox groaned and then raised his voice. “STOP THAT YOU NERFHERDERS! HE IS IN NO DANGER.”  
He contently watched at they all whipped their heads around, finally taking notice of him.  
The Zillobeast too, finally cracked open one of their eyes, pupil shortly flicking in the direction where Nurp was currently looking like a weird, radioactive pushel of hair growing from the back of their head.  
Following Fox’ line of sight, Headlock let out another rather undignified sound (imagine a Porg being strategically placed in a closing door). “Commander Fox, Sir, this is…” The poor man practically radiated discomfort. Several others of his brothers that were closing in now, questions and uncertainty about the whole situations written plainly over their faces. Sighing loudly again, he finally took off his helmet, raking his fingers through his hair.  
“Don’t worry, the is a Jedi. He can talk to the beast. Has been for a while now I think.”  
Some relaxed their posture a bit, others looked back and forth between the yawning Zillobeast and Fox, seemingly even more confused that before. Tal, one of the younger members of the Guard, squinted a little in the direction of Nurp. “A Jedi, Sir? But… isn’t he a little young?” Another of his brothers rapped him across the back of his head “Tal, you insensitive bastard, you can’t just say that. Maybe he is just from a small species, like Master Yoda.”  
Fox crossed his arms, lightly glancing in their direction while still keeping his attention on Nurp who now was exploring the back of his living playground. “Nah, Tal’s right. He is a child. I believe he is nine? Can’t remember if he told me or not.”  
An uncomfortable silence descended upon their small group.  
“Don’t worry, I already sent a message to the Jedi, they know he’s with me.”  
His men just continued to stare at him wordlessly.  
Fox felt judged.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i really imagine the dynamic between the Zillobeast and Nurp kind of like that between Appa and Momo in ATLA  
> (With Headlock being Sokka, thinking Momo will be eaten any time)


	19. If Naboo Has A Child Queen, I Can Do This As Well

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did not lie, technically.  
> it wasnt half a month i waited since the last update,  
> it was more.
> 
> Jk i really should stop procrastinating... but alas, if i were a sim that would be one of my most dominant character traits.
> 
> Anyways

“You want to do WHAT?!”  
Fox, like the ever gracious and patent leader he was, ignored Headlock’s rude interruption. Though he was adding him to the list of People Who Need To Learn That Actions Have Consequences, he had a reputation to uphold after all.  
He glanced over the rest of his brothers, all sitting in a circle on the floor with him. Several others looked like they too wanted to say something.  
“Thank you, Headlock, for that truly inspiring input.” Fox said dryly “But to summarize what I said before, yes, the Zillobeast is the lawful successor of Palpatine’s seat as Chancellor, and I do indeed plan to support that claim.”  
He was met with silence, as the whole round just stared at him. What was it with everyone and that reaction when he told them his plans?! If they didn’t want him to make decisions, someone else should have become Guard Commander, he could live without it. (Yes, Fox was aware it didn’t work like that, but still…)  
“You want THAT to rule the Republic?” Tal waved his hands aggressively towards the Zillobeast who now seemed to... show Nurp a plant that looked similar to his hair? Fox stared at the almost equally colourful fern. Yep, Thorn’s taste in plants really was questionable. He just hoped the plants that would, and Fox shuddered at that thought, eventually be placed in his office were more… normal. He could live with green. Green was good.  
Plants weren’t supposed to be neon orange.  
Just…no.  
He looked back at Tal, who still had his arm stretched out accusingly.  
“If you have a better plan, I’m all ears. Palpatine was a shabuir and we all know it. And i have no intentions of letting Amedda success him because I. am. Sick. Of. Doing. All. Their. Illegal. Paperwork.” Lots of uncomfortable shuffling ensued in their little round. Fox let them suffer for a few moments, then he leaned forward, arms propped on his knees, and continued. “The plan is as follows: I get that document that supports the Zillobeast’s claim to chancellorship, I make them Chancellor, I- we profit.”  
Fyll raised their hand (Fox would never admit it, but he found that habit of theirs quite endearing) and the Commander nodded. “You have a question?”  
“What do you mean, “profit”, Sir?”  
“Ah, you see,” a sly grin crept over his face, “A Chancellor who doesn’t comprehend the concept of unsavoury things like bribery or corruption will only benefit the Republic, wouldn’t you think? Moreover, there will be much fewer loads paperwork and last-minute seafood-platters.” Fox shrugged, ”Plus; Look at them, we wont ever again have to worry about someone trying to assassinate or kidnap the Chancellor.” And he gestured towards the giant, invincible creature.  
The whole round now looked as if they were earnestly considering the benefits.  
Tal, who, as one of the youngest, had been condemned to help Fox with the paperwork more than once, was chewing on his lip and murmured something in agreement.  
Headlock scowled. He probably was still thinking the Zillobeast would eat them all.  
The others seemed to see the merit to varying degrees.  
After a few moments Fyll, cool-headed as always, raised their hand again.  
“Yes, Fyll?”  
They hesitated for a second, then said, “But… won’t communication be a problem? There were rumours about you being able to speak with them, is that true, Sir?” Several of the others made curious and inquisitive noises.  
Fox dragged a hand over his face, groaning.  
Who the kark had started that rumour? He bet on Ponds. He had been there after all.  
(So had a big number of the Guard and the 41st, but Fox ignored that. He’d rather claim ignorance than admit that maybe it was his own fault for running around and screaming at the Zillobeast.)  
“No. I do not know what you absurd rumours you heard, I cannot talk to them. They themselves can indeed communicate with probably everyone, and they have with me, but I cannot reply in any way. That’s Jedi mumbo-jumbo. Mind-talking and that bantha-shite.” The memory of them screaming in his head about plants was still very vivid.  
“But then… How will we talk to …them?”, Tal piped up.  
Wordlessly Fox pointed over to Nurp.  
Well, there sure was one good thing about that terrible hair: the boy was very well visible at all times.  
A unbelieving “What??” fell from Fyll’s lips.  
Fox sighed and turned around.  
“HEY, GREMLIN! COULD YOU COME OVER HERE FOR A SECOND?”, he shouted through the Chamber.  
Immediately a head bobbed up from amongst a thick bush of luckily normal-coloured fern. The whole round of Guard members watched as the child climbed out of the pod, onto the head of the Zillobeast, slid down their neck and then latched onto the paw and was gently lowered to the ground. As soon as his feet touched the ground, the boy zoomed towards them. Holding something in his arms.  
A very familiar porg stared at Fox, looking slightly ruffled from what he only could suspect had been a rather turbulent way down, locked into the baby Jedi’s deathgrip. The little pest let out an indignant squawk. “Pssh.”The boy looked down at his chittering prey.  
Silence permeated their small round, once again Fox could feel the others judgmental glares locked onto him. Ignoring them, he cleared his throat. “Nurp.” The child looked towards him (slightly downwards because sitting Fox was smaller than a 9 year old. Fox definitely wasn’t painfully aware of that…) and tilted his head. “Yes?” And immediately followed up with holding the flailing porg in his face and asking “Doyouwanttoholdhim?” Fox scrutinized the porg. It must have escaped the Zillobeast and hidden somewhere amongst the pods. With a grimace, he shoved the detestable creature back into the child’s arms. “No no, you keep him. But Nurp, you told me you can talk to the Zillobeast, that’s right, yes?”  
Clutching the porg, the boy nodded strongly, radioactive pigtails flying.  
Fox grabbed him under the shoulders and lifted him up in front of himself, presenting him to the rest of the round.  
“He can talk to them.”  
“Sir.” Headlock deadpanned. “This is a child.”  
“Yes. But it is a JEDI child.”  
And on the side Tal whispered to his neighbour, “Does that mean this is our general?”


	20. Mother Knows Best

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi  
> i am in fact still alive
> 
> only procrastinating like a young god.
> 
> BUT I FINALLY DID IT, I WROTE THE THING  
> once again, i hope this makes sense, if not i blame it on the fact that writing 2 papers has fried my brain.

HAPPINESSCONFUSIONGLEE.  
Blinking, the Zillobeast sat down their head on one of the hard-shells-filled-with-blooming-life, still observing the tiny-bright-one and the red-and-white-little-ones. Their inner-voices were all so loud, maybe something had happened.  
Hatchlings were so excitable.  
They sent a question-tap to the tiny-bright-hatchling that knew how to use his inner-voice to speak. Immediately, they got an answer back. I was still a bit jumbly, the tiny-one was still learning how to properly talk-inner-voice-to-inner-voice. Still better than the tired-one. That one did not talk back at all, which was rude. Worse, when the tired-one had run away from nest-that-was-safe and hidden behind hard-shell-of-lifeless-earth that was also a slippery-wall for their inner-voice, they had tried to soft-tap the spaces-of-inner-voice of the hatchlings that were bringing life-that-flowers-and-blooms, but the hatchlings had not liked it.  
It was no-good to spook hatchlings, so they had kept their inner-voice to themself and only observed-from-afar.  
But that was no-good for them themself. They wanted to speak with other-life-that-could-talk-back. They had been with-no-pack for so-many-changes-of-sky since the violent-little-ones had hunted their pack back on where-born-and-raised. And in the silence-that-follows-death lied hunger-that-consumes-and-brings-darkness and they didn’t want to become a wrong-one.  
How happy they had been when the tired-one had brought another bright-one back! The one they had seen on wide-place-between-narrow-and-steep-walls-of-lifeless-earth had run away so fast. The bright-ones seemed to know how to use their inner-voice. Maybe they had their own nest on this lifeless-earth-here… It was nice to have a nest of talkers-of-inner-voice, even if they were other-kin.  
That happy-and-bright tiny-hatchling had talked so much! It was nice.  
And he still talked!  
Oh.   
The tired-little-one had taken the tiny-bright-one into his pack? And as leader-of-pack it seemed?   
The Zillobeast had been confused when the tiny-one had tried to show-explain the pack-way-and-life of the little-ones. There had been many things-that-were-not-known and thoughts-that-made-no-picture in their space-of-inner-voice-and-thoughts.   
The tiny-one was young. Younger than most of the red-and-white-hatchlings-who-were-not-completely-hatchlings. Why would the tired-little-one make a hatchling leader-of-pack?  
Maybe it was because the tiny-one could speak-with-inner-voice?  
The tired-one definitely needed new-tap of go-to-sleep if he was running around making pack-leaders-that-were-also-hatchlings. In-the-what-was-before their own raiser-of-hatchlings had warned them to not-ever-get-too-less-sleep. It was no-good for hatchlings-that-needed-to-grow. Now they understood why. Tired hatchlings were a danger-to-pack-and-nest.   
Narrowing their eyes they focussed back to the small huddle of red-and-white-little-ones. It was nice to see that even his close-kin felt that the tired-one needed more sleep. Their life-lights too were slightly dim from lack-of-sleep, but the one of the tired-one was so much worse.   
Only the tiny-one was a good hatchling. He had slept not-much-before and they had observed his sleep-thoughts-that-flow. There had been other tiny-little-ones, close kin and many life-that-grow-and-bloom. Some of them seemed overly big, but they guessed it was because the tiny one was truly small.  
But it seemed as if the tired-little-hatchling really needed one-more tap of-go-to-sleep.  
The Zillobeast moved their head, getting closer to the tired-little-one-who-refused-sleep and had his back turned to them. One more thing the little-one would have to learn. Never turn your back.  
Their raiser-of-hatchlings would have been proud.


	21. Exit, Pursued By Ghost

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sweet lords, i am finally almost through with exams, which means i'll have some more time and brain capacity to write again. Not that this chapter shows any of that in any way, shape or form.  
> But hey, all of this is just me having continuous brain farts and rolling w it :)
> 
> logic who? i dont know her.

In retrospect, Fox should have known something was up when Fyll had frozen up, seemingly looking at a point above Fox’ head.  
He definitely should have known something was up the moment Headlock had started swearing and putting his hand onto his blaster holsters.  
But all he could think of at that moment was inexplicably, that if the Jedi found out they had been teaching one of their children swearwords, they’d never be allowed to keep Nurp. And he really needed the little gremlin, not only was he the one who could make it clear to the Zillobeast, that procuring plants on Coruscant was kinda tricky, but also was he a seemingly very effective porg-hunter. He’d caught that tiny rotund pest in record time! (Maybe he should get more baby Jedi, the seemed proficient for pest control. He’d have to bring it up with Thorn and Thire. After they had gotten their respective punishments for withholding information and/or shinies from him)  
Alas, he never got to reprimand Headlock about corrupting their new General.  
For a split second Fox felt a very familiar presence knock on the back of his mind.  
Then there was darkness.  
Funny was, this time he was actually aware that he had been knocked out. Not that it made anything better or whatever, Fox was just kind of floating in an empty colourless void right now. This was worse than the karking hallways in the Jedi Temple, those at least had pillars. And a COLOUR. With everything that had been going on, he would have thought that the Zillobeast would have at least the decency to decorate this stupid void.   
Okay. If he ever got to learn how to do this Jedi mind communication business, he too would scream about plants.  
But for now, all that he could do was float in the void and scowl.   
Admittedly, he had wished for the void to swallow him more than once in the past, but that had been a figure of speech! Also, it had been before he had had a new Chancellor to support, brothers to put in jail and a General who probably should eat dinner at some point! (Fox slowly began to understand why Cody and some of the others were constantly lamenting about how time consuming caring for a General was. Maybe he should pry for tips at some point…) Yet here he was, colourless darkness all around him. Closing his eyes didn’t really help, it just resulted in another flavour of void and a slightly dizzy feeling that Fox would rather avoid. He had no idea what would happen if he got motion sick here, but he sure wasn’t taking any chances.  
He opened his eyes again.  
Not that it made any difference.  
Void.  
Void.  
Void.  
Weird glowing guy.  
Void.  
Wait what.  
Very pointedly not looking at the slightly spectral form of whoever it was that was hovering a bit off to his side Fox continued to stare into the void. It was kinda tricky, because his eyes were automatically drawn to the only light source available. Years of sleep deprivation had taught him that ignoring ones hallucinations generally didn’t help, but it made the other people around not question ones sanity and call Kelly.  
Tough, on second thought…. Kelly wasn’t here. And short of the Zillobeast jettisoning him into the void as well, the medic would have no chance to ever catch wind of what transpired in here. His little surveillance network of mouse droids wouldn’t help him here. (Though, Fox did make a mental note to check the void on mouse droids at some point, just to be sure. After all, something told him this wouldn’t be the last time he landed here…)  
(Why the kark were people so obsessed with putting him to sleep??)  
Anyways. Fox shot a calculating glance to the entity. Well, he was bored out of his mind anyways, and since he had to pass his time in here somehow and just staring into the void made him contemplate things he’d successfully avoided thinking about until now, why not talk to the figment of his own imagination? He cocked his head back, seeking the eye contact with the hallucination or whatever. Interestingly enough, his brain had conjured a Mandalorian, or at least a male human in beskar’gam. Kelly would definitely associate this with some unconscious desire to “confront their origins” or whatever.  
The two of them just stared at each other. Several moments passed without either of them uttering a single word.  
Fox caved in.   
“So, you come here often?”  
The hallucination just stared at him.   
Okay, Fox was going to admit, not the smoothest conversation starter. But this was a figment of his own force-damned imagination, so it (he?) better not karking judge him.  
Meanwhile the other man just looked slightly confused. “I… interesting. You see me now?”  
Huh, the hallucination sported quite the accent.  
“Believe me, I’d rather not. You’re better not still be there when I get out of here, Kelly cuts my caffeine intake enough as it is. I don’t need hallucinations to increase that any further.” Better set clear boundaries. It was the basis of any productive relationship. “I don’t mind you here in this sleep-void or whatever the Chancellor intended with this. But no hallucinations in my working environment. The Senators and the Chancellor are enough already.”  
The hallucinatory Mandalorian continued to stare, then pinched the bridge of his nose and mumbled something that vaguely sounded like mando’a and was probably very unflattering.  
“Hey, no ne-“  
Fox’ protest against being insulted by his own imagination was cut short by a sharp handwave that literally tied his tongue to the back of his mouth.   
What in all the Hells?!   
“I am not a hallucination!”, the hallucination proclaimed.  
Fox raised an eyebrow in doubt.  
“I am not! Could a hallucination do this?” And the slightly agitated hallucination gestured to Fox’ mouth.  
He shrugged. He had been sent to a mental void by a magical murderbeast that also had a strong claim on the chancellorship of the republic and loved plants, had kind of accidentally kidnapped a child from the order of also magical space monks when all he had wanted was to retrieve a piece of flimsy and his previous boss had apparently turned out to be also capable of space magic, but evil. So, his own hallucination having magical powers was, apart from deeply annoying and kind of jealousy-inducing, not something he would consider out of the ordinary.  
The hallucination looked like he wanted to punch him.  
But he restrained himself. “Listen, ad. I am not. A. Hallucination. I have become one with the Force after my death, which allows for some interaction with the living. I believe the colloquial term is “force-ghost”, inelegant but to the point.” And with the last statement he waved his hand again, freeing Fox’ tongue. Then he looked expectantly.  
Fox massaged his jaw for a while staring back indignantly.  
“Sounds like force-bullshit,” he crossed his arms, “and I am not a Jedi. So I wouldn’t be able to see you then. Thus, you must be a hallucination.” (He was definitely not trapped in a pitch black void with a ghost. Nope. Definitely not. Not at all. This was only his imagination and maybe a bit too much caffeine. Nothing else. There was one constant in Fox’ life and that was that he was blissfully safe from any Force bullshittery. And that was going to stay that way.)  
The hallucination (not a ghost) narrowed his eyes.  
“I don’t really understand it either. You are about as force-sensitive as a fork.” Oh finally some good news for Fox. “But,” the not-ghost continued, “the Force works in mysterious ways. So I can only guess for the reason it has led me to you.”  
Fox’ mood instantly plummeted.  
He really shouldn’t have tried to interact with this hallucination-maybe-ghost. Straying from routine never resulted in good things, he should have known that this was a bad idea. So many regrets.  
But the… other entity didn’t seem to pick up on his distress, either that, or he just ignored it. A slightly spectral, lowing hand grabbed Fox’ shoulder and he was turned around to directly face the Mandalorian who sported a slightly forced looking smile.  
“Well then. Let me introduce myself. My name, ad, is Tarre Vizsla and I am not a hallucination, but a former Mand’alor. The Force has led me to you for some reason and I will find out why.”  
Oh great.   
A hallucination with delusions of grandeur.


End file.
